Further Development and Validation of MR Elastography for Assessment of the Central Cardiovascular System

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Loss of elasticity of the vessel wall due to atherosclerosis is associated with a markedly higher risk of cardiovascular events. While it is well established that stiffness of central vessel walls is a marker of cardiovascular risk, adequate methods for assessing vessel wall stiffness are still lacking. Therefore, there is a great need for a new method that allows reliable and noninvasive measurement of changes in the stiffness of central arterial walls such as the aorta.The interdisciplinary research project proposed here is intended to continue earlier work of the applicant in cardiac MR elastography and aims at developing techniques for the visualization of the elasticity of the thoracic and abdominal aorta using MR elastography. This requires extensive new developments involving the three major components of MR elastography, i.e., the excitation method, image acquisition, and calculation of elasticity parameters. It is intended to validate the new method in healthy volunteers and patients with arterial hypertension.