Agreement between methods of measurement of mean aortic wall thickness by MRI.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the agreement between three methods of calculation of mean aortic wall thickness (MAWT) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).


METHODS
High-resolution MRI of the infrarenal abdominal aorta was performed on 70 subjects with a history of coronary artery disease who were part of a multi-ethnic population-based sample. MAWT was calculated as the mean distance between the adventitial and luminal aortic boundaries using three different methods: average distance at four standard positions (AWT-4P), average distance at 100 automated positions (AWT-100P), and using a mathematical computation derived from the total vessel and luminal areas (AWT-VA). Bland-Altman plots and Passing-Bablok regression analyses were used to assess agreement between methods.


RESULTS
Bland-Altman analyses demonstrated a positive bias of 3.02+/-7.31% between the AWT-VA and the AWT-4P methods, and of 1.76+/-6.82% between the AWT-100P and the AWT-4P methods. Passing-Bablok regression analyses demonstrated constant bias between the AWT-4P method and the other two methods. Proportional bias was, however, not evident among the three methods.


CONCLUSIONS
MRI methods of measurement of MAWT using a limited number of positions of the aortic wall systematically underestimate the MAWT value compared with the method that calculates MAWT from the vessel areas.
Rosero
Eric B
EB
Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas Texas 75390-9157, USA. eric.rosero@utsouthwestern.edu
Peshock
Ronald M
RM
Khera
Amit
A
Clagett
G Patrick
GP
Lo
Hao
H
Timaran
Carlos
C
D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000473:pathology*; D001837:Body Weights and Measures / Q000379:methods; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013781:Texas