Figure 1

Aortic PWV, A) Sagittal CMR image that shows the sites where phase contrast cine images were acquired: 1) ascending aorta, 2) descending aorta. The distance between both locations (Δx) was measured along a midline through the aortic arch. B) This graph shows the transit delay (Δt) of the systolic flow curves in the descending relative to the ascending aorta. The transit time (Δt) was determined from the midpoints of the systolic up-slope (ta1 and ta2) on the flow versus time curves. The difference of ta for ascending (ta1) and descending aorta (ta2) locations defined Δt. Pulse wave velocity was estimated as Δx/Δt.