Regional in vivo transit time measurements of aortic pulse wave velocity in mice with high-field CMR at 17.6 Tesla

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transgenic mouse models are increasingly used to study the pathophysiology of human cardiovascular diseases. The aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an indirect measure for vascular stiffness and a marker for cardiovascular risk.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study presents a cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) transit time (TT) method that allows the determination of the PWV in the descending murine aorta by analyzing blood flow waveforms. Systolic flow pulses were recorded with a temporal resolution of 1 ms applying phase velocity encoding. In a first step, the CMR method was validated by pressure waveform measurements on a pulsatile elastic vessel phantom. In a second step, the CMR method was applied to measure PWVs in a group of five eight-month-old apolipoprotein E deficient (ApoE^(-/-)) mice and an age matched group of four C57Bl/6J mice. The ApoE^(-/-)group had a higher mean PWV (PWV = 3.0 ± 0.6 m/s) than the C57Bl/6J group (PWV = 2.4 ± 0.4 m/s). The difference was statistically significant (p = 0.014).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of this study demonstrate that high field CMR is applicable to non-invasively determine and distinguish PWVs in the arterial system of healthy and diseased groups of mice.</p

Hemodynamics: An Introduction

International audienceThe cardiovascular transport circuit is involved in both mass and heat transfer. It carries blood cells as well as oxygen and nutrients to cells of the body’s organs through the perfusing systemic arterial bed and wastes produced by working cells to their final destinations through draining veins. Blood flows throughout the body in the vasculature due to a pressure difference between the ventricular outlet and atrial inlet. Blood is propelled in the systemic and pulmonary circulation by the synchronized action of the left and right apposed cardiac pumps, respectively. Hemodynamics is related to the flow features in the heart and blood vessels, in normal and pathological conditions, in particular the pressure–flow relations and transport of substances by blood to given target organs. It can be required in therapy planning and optimization