Three-Dimensional Assessment of Wall Shear Stress Distribution in the Atherosclerotic Aorta

Andreas Harloff¹, Andrea Nubaumer¹, Simon Bauer², Aurelien F. Stalder², Alex Frydrychowicz², Cornelius Weiller¹, Jrgen Hennig², Michael Markl²

Flow sensitive MRI for the in-vivo quantification of 3D blood-flow and derived vessel wall parameters may provide an enhanced understanding of flow-mediated arterial atherogenesis in the aorta. We sought to evaluate the individual distribution of segmental wall shear stress in 58 acute stroke patients. Time-resolved 3D phase contrast MRI with three-directional velocity encoding (flow-sensitive 4D MRI) was used to acquire the full hemodynamic information on 3D blood flow in the aorta. Optimized data quantification was used to derive segmental wall shear parameters covering the entire thoracic aorta.