Association of Wall Compliance with Intraluminal Thrombus, Calcification, and the Size of Infrarenal Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: An in Vivo MR Phase-Contrast Angiography Study

Hong Ye¹, Gador Canton², Xihai Zhao², William Kerwin², Chun Yuan², Zhanming Fan¹

AAA rupture related risk factors include maximum diameter, wall stress or compliance, intraluminal thrombus (ILT), and calcification. The assessment of the correlations among these factors may improve the management and prognosis of AAA. This study investigated the association of wall compliance with ILT, calcification, and the size of infrarenal AAA using in vivo PC-MRA in 48 patients. We found the wall compliance was positively associated with ILT, which suggests thrombus may be a protective factor for AAA rupture. In addition, our results indicate that length to maximum diameter ratio may be a stronger indicator for wall compliance.