title: Age-related and regional changes of aortic stiffness in the Marfan syndrome: assessment with velocity-encoded MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study age-related change in aortic stiffness in patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS) versus healthy volunteers using velocity-encoded (VE) MRI.
  
  
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. j.j.m.westenberg@lumc.nl
authors.forename: Jos J M
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Westenberg
authors.forename: Arthur J H A
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Scholte
authors.forename: Zuzana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Vaskova
authors.forename: Rob J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: van der Geest
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groenink
authors.forename: Gerda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Labadie
authors.forename: Pieter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: van den Boogaard
authors.forename: Teodora
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Radonic
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hilhorst-Hofstee
authors.forename: Barbara J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Lucia J M
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Kroft
authors.forename: Johan H C
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Reiber
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Roos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008382:Marfan Syndrome / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D059289:Vascular Stiffness; D055815:Young Adult