Michael C. Langham1, Jeremy Magland1, Felix W. Wehrli1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
At the early systolic phase it is assumed that the pulse wave is unidirectional and reflectionless. From this assumption pulse wave velocity (PWV) can be can be expressed as PWV = δQ/δA, where δQ and δA represent temporal changes in the blood flow rate and cross-sectional area of the aorta. We present an MRI technique unaffected by irregular heart rhythm (which is normal) since PWV is estimated during a single heartbeat. The derived PWV = 2.5 m/s, which is somewhat lower than those found in literature for a healthy subject. Sources of error are deviations of aortic circularity.