Abstract

We propose an improved methodology1 to automatically estimate local 3D Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) measurements for quantifying local alterations due to aortic distensibility using 4D flow data. 18 volunteers and 25 patients with Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) were evaluated using the proposed method. The results show the prevalence of higher values of PWV in FH patients than volunteers, particularly in the ascending aorta (AAo) and proximal descending aorta (pDAo). This semi-automatic 3D method is less user dependent and uses multiple correlations to improve accuracy. We demonstrate an excellent agreement with expect values.