Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a constriction of the descending thoracic aorta and is one of the most common congenital cardiovascular defects affecting 5,000-8,000 births annually in USA. Patients with CoA can have hyperdynamic and remodeled left ventricle from increased afterload. The mechanisms of morbidity from CoA are difficult to study in clinical setting due to the patients’ heterogeneity from confounding variables and concomitant anomalies. To remove these barriers, we adapted a novel rabbit model of CoA, which we scanned using MRI to study CoA-induced alterations in global and regional cardiac function and compare results to measurements from controls.
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