Alexander Gotschy1, 2, Volker Herold1, Elisabeth Bauer2, Gunthard Lykowsky3, Christian Schrodt2, Eberhard Rommel1, Peter M. Jakob1, Wolfgang R. Bauer1
1Department of Experimental Physics 5, University of Wrzburg, Wrzburg, Germany; 2Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Wrzburg, Wrzburg, Germany; 3Research Center Magnetic Resonance Bavaria (MRB), Wrzburg, Germany
Increased aortic stiffness is known to be associated with atherosclerosis. However, to our knowledge, the local distribution of vascular stiffening has never been investigated in detail. A local indicator for the elasticity of the vessel wall is the Pulse-Wave-Velocity (PWV). In this study we assessed regional and local PWV in the descending aortas of ApoE-/- and control mice and evaluated the correlation of both parameters. Thereby we found that local and regional PWV show a good correlation in control mice but no correlation in ApoE-/- mice. This may indicate that vascular stiffening is very unequally distributed over the vessel.
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