Assessing sex and age effect on ventricular stiffness using cardiac Multifrequency MR Elastography

Motivation: Ventricular stiffness is a critical indicator of diastolic function, but its clinical assessment remains challenging. Cardiac Multifrequency MRE (MMRE) offers a non-invasive approach to quantify ventricular stiffness. Goal(s): To investigate diastolic ventricular stiffness variations with age and sex using cardiac MMRE. Approach: A prospective study of 40 healthy controls underwent cardiac MMRE. Shear wave speed maps were reconstructed for left and right ventricles. Results: An interaction effect between age and sex was observed. Females showed a significant increase in ventricular stiffness with age in both ventricles, while males did not. This study marks the first non-invasive quantification of right ventricular stiffness using MMRE. Impact: Cardiac MMRE enables non-invasive quantification of both LV and RV stiffness. This technique unveils sex-specific age-related changes in ventricular stiffness, potentially leading to personalized cardiovascular risk stratification and treatment strategies. It opens new avenues for investigating sex-specific cardiac aging mechanisms.