Cited 31 times since 2011 (2.4 per year) source: EuropePMC Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI, Volume 34, Issue 3, 14 2 2011, Pages 526-531 Age-related and regional changes of aortic stiffness in the Marfan syndrome: assessment with velocity-encoded MRI. Westenberg JJ, Scholte AJ, Vaskova Z, van der Geest RJ, Groenink M, Labadie G, van den Boogaard PJ, Radonic T, Hilhorst-Hofstee Y, Mulder BJ, Kroft LJ, Reiber JH, de Roos A
Purpose
To study age-related change in aortic stiffness in patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS) versus healthy volunteers using velocity-encoded (VE) MRI.
Materials and methods
Twenty-five MFS patients (age range, 18-63 years; mean age 36 ± 14 years, 13 men) and 25 age-/gender-matched healthy volunteers were examined with VE-MRI. Aortic stiffness was expressed by pulse wave velocity (PWV), assessed in the proximal and distal part of the aorta and in the total aorta. PWV was compared between patients and volunteers and age-relation was determined by linear regression.
Results
PWV was significantly higher in all parts of the aorta in patients when compared with healthy volunteers (proximal aorta 5.7 ± 1.5 m/s versus 4.8 ± 0.9 m/s, distal aorta 6.4 ± 2.4 m/s versus 5.0 ± 1.2 m/s and total aorta 5.9 ± 1.7 m/s versus 4.9 ± 1.1 m/s, all P < 0.004). PWV correlated significantly with age (Pearson R between 0.45 and 0.94). Only in the proximal aorta, the increase in PWV with age was significantly higher in patients (7 ± 2 cm/s increase with age) than in volunteers (3 ± 1 cm/s increase, P = 0.03); in the distal or total aorta, the increase in PWV with age was not different between patients and volunteers.
Conclusion
Velocity-encoded MRI detects more pronounced age-related aortic stiffening in the proximal aorta in MFS patients versus healthy volunteers, suggesting more severe wall disease in MFS.
