Wavelet-Based Evaluation for the Thoracic Aorta Stiffness from CINE-MR Images

Abubakr El-Tahir¹, Alain Lalande¹, Marie Xavier¹, Alexandre Cochet¹, Nicolas Vignon¹, Paul M. Walker¹, Jean-Eric Wolf¹, Franois Brunotte¹

A new method is proposed to evaluate the aortic stiffness and to detect abnormalities in its condition. The methods relies on cine MR images to monitor the aortic vessel and to observe the evolution of its cross sectional area at a given site over time. The variation of the area is then analyzed using the wavelet decomposition. The wavelet spectrum is used to classify patients with aortic disorders from healthy subjects. This method was tested on patients with Marfan syndrome and MYH11 mutation. Promising results was obtained in comparison with the commonly used stiffness measurements like compliance and pulse-wave-velocity.