A one-dimensional velocity technique for NMR measurement of aortic distensibility

A technique is presented for rapidly and noninvasively determining aortic distensibility, by NMR measurement of wave velocity in the aorta. A two–dimensional NMR selective-excitation pulse is used to repeatedly excite a cylinder of magnetization in the aorta, with magnetization read out along the cylinder axis each time. A toggled bipolar flow-encoding pulse is applied prior to readout, to produce a one-dimensional phase-contrast flow image. Cardiac gating and data interleaving are employed to improve the effective time resolution to 2 ms. Wave velocities are determined from the slope of the leading edge of flow measured on the resulting M-mode velocity image. The technique is sensitive over a range of distensibilities from 10^?8 to 10^?3 m s²/kg. The average value in the descending thoracic aorta in seven normal subjects was found to be 4.8 × 10^?5 m s²/kg, with a significant inverse correlation with age.