High Field In-Vivo PC-MRI to Quantify and Compare Regional and Local Pulse-Wave Velocity in the Right Common Carotid Artery in Mice

Volker Herold¹, Alma Zerneck², Alexander Gotschy¹, Eberhard Rommel¹, Wolfgang Rudolf Bauer², Peter Michael Jakob¹

Quantification of the vessel wall function in mouse models by estimating the pulse wave velocity (PWV) has emerged as an important predictor of cardiovascular risk. Usually transit-time methods (TT) to quantify the averaged regional PWV and local PWV measurements using QA-methods (Q: volume flow; A: cross-sectional area) are applied. However, no comparison of these techniques have yet been performed with MR-based imaging in particular not in the carotid arteries. In this paper we present a multi-site-TT approach to calculate at the first time the regional PWV in the carotid artery and compare these results with local PWV values