In vivo MRI quantification of circumferential wall shear stress in atherosclerotic-prone mouse aorta

Phase-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to measure blood flow distribution and identify plaque growth in the abdominal aorta of two different mouse strains. We present a method to compute wall shear stress (WSS) distribution along a cross section of the abdominal aorta as a function of an azimuthal variable. We track WSS in both a transgenic mouse (TG) and wild type (WT) mouse over one cardiac cycle. Comparison of WSS shows that the TG mouse has a lower WSS than the WT mouse. With further refinement, this technique can enhance understanding of the relationship between structure of the vascular wall and resultant function.