Feasibility of Measuring Magnetic Resonance Elastography-derived Stiffness in Human Thoracic Aorta and Aortic Dissection Phantoms

Overview

Journal J Vasc Surg Cases Innov Tech

Date 2025 Jan 16

PMID 39816441

Authors

Adnan Hirad

Faisal S Fakhouri

Brian Raterman

Ronald Lakony

Maxwell Wang

Dakota Gonring

Baqir Kedwai

Arunark Kolipaka

Doran Mix

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Type B aortic dissection (TBAD) represents a serious medical emergency with up to a 50% associated 5-year mortality caused by thoracic aorta, dissection-associated aneurysmal (DAA) degeneration, and rupture. Unfortunately, conventional size-related diagnostic methods cannot distinguish high-risk DAAs that benefit from surgical intervention from stable DAAs. Our goal is to use DAA stiffness measured with magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) as a biomarker to distinguish high-risk DAAs from stable DAAs. This is a feasibility study using MRE to (1) fabricate human-like geometries TBAD phantoms with different stiffnesses, (2) measure stiffness in TBAD phantoms with rheometry, and (3) demonstrate the first successful application of MRE to the thoracic aorta of a human volunteer. AD phantoms with heterogenous wall stiffness demonstrated the correlation between MRE-derived stiffness and rheometric measured stiffness. A pilot scan was performed in a healthy volunteer to test the technique's feasibility in the thoracic aorta.

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