Abstract #1279

Xu D, Liu K, Li D, Carroll T, Carr J, Tian L, Yuan C, McDermott M

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common condition that is highly correlated with increased rates of functional impairment and decline and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. In recent years, high resolution MR imaging has been considered as the most promising imaging modality for assessing atherosclerotic plaque burden in many vascular beds [1]. However, there has been little research that uses MRIs ability to analyze atherosclerotic plaque burden in the lower extremity arteries. In this study, we use MRI cross sectional images to quantitatively analyze vessel wall morphology, in particular the following plaque characteristics: normalized total plaque volume, maximum arterial wall thickness, and mean arterial wall thickness the three independent measures of plaque burden in PAD evaluation.