Henrik Haraldsson1,
2, Michael Hope3, Gabriel Acevedo-Bolton1, 2,
Elaine Tseng1, 2, Xiaodong Zhong4, David A.
Saloner1, 2
1University
of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 2Veteran
Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States; 3University
of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 4MR
R&D Collaborations, Siemens Healthcare, Atlanta, GA, United States
Mechanical properties of the aortic wall have been used to diagnose disease. Current non-invasive techniques for assessing aortic deformation are based on diameter changes, and are sensitive to through-plane motion of the aorta. We propose a new MRI approach that measures the regional stretch of the aortic wall itself using DENSE. The results show a clear difference between young volunteers and older patients, and then between these patients depending on whether the aorta is dilated or not. Regional differences in stretch could be seen in all groups, with increased stretch values towards the right-posterior quadrant of the aorta.