Van Lai Nguyen1,2, Geert-Willem Schurink1,
Anne E. Saris2, Marianne Eline Kooi2, Walter H. Backes2,
Rob J. van Der Geest3, Tim Leiner2,4
1Department of Surgery,
Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands; 2Department
of Radiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands; 3LKEB,
Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; 4Department of
Radiology, Utrecht University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands
The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and the factors leading to rupture of the AAA remain incompletely understood. At present there are no good markers that predict AAA growth rate and rupture risk in individual patients. We present a method to quantitatively analyze AAA wall components, including adventitial vasa vasorum characteristics based on (dynamic) contrast-enhanced MRI and demonstrate its potential applicability to study AAA growth over time. Aneurysm wall thickness and amount of adventitial vasa vasorum were strongly correlated with maximal AAA diameter.