Abstract #1350

Association of Arterial Compliance Between Carotid Artery and Abdominal Aorta and Its Role in Assessment of Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: A 3.0T MR Imaging Study

Li Jiang¹, Huijun Chen¹, Xu Han², Zhensen Chen¹, Rui Li¹, Le He¹, Chun Yuan¹,³, Xihai Zhao¹

¹Center for Biomedical Imaging Research & Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; ²Department of Radiology, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China; ³Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States

Wall compliance, as a systemic biomechanical characteristic of degeneration of vessel wall, has been demonstrated to be associated with atherosclerosis disease risk. In this study, we investigated the correlation of wall compliance between carotid artery and abdominal aorta and its role in assessment of severity of carotid atherosclerosis. We found that compliance of carotid artery differed from abdominal aorta and was associated with abdominal aorta compliance as well as carotid atherosclerotic plaque burden. Our findings indicate that arterial compliance in one vascular bed might be an indicator for other vascular biomechanical characteristics and severity of atherosclerotic disease.