Abstract #1194

Measurement of Morphological & Functional Changes of the Vessel Wall During the Progression of Atherosclerosis in the ApoE-/- Mouse Model by MR-Microscopy at 17.6T

Alexander Gotschy^1,2, Volker Herold², Gunthard Lykowsky², Elisabeth Bauer¹, Eberhard Rommel², Peter M. Jakob², Wolfgang Rudolf Bauer¹

¹Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Wuerzburg, Julius-Maximilians-University, Wuerzburg, Germany; ²Department of Experimental Physics 5,, Julius-Maximilians-University, Wuerzburg, Germany

In this study we measured the functional and morphological changes that occur during the formation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions in the abdominal aorta of ApoE-/- mice by the use of MR-Microscopy at 17.6T. The morphological changes were quantified by determining the mean arterial wall thickness. As functional parameter we assessed the local pulse wave velocity (PWV) which is an indicator for the arterial stiffness. Thereby we found, that the local PWV increases clearly before morphological changes are detectable, which makes the local PWV a very sensitive parameter for the examination of early stages of atherosclerosis.