Key Points
- Quantify pulsatile velocity profiles in the human abdominal aorta to determine whether local hemodynamic velocity directions correlate with the localization of atherosclerotic disease.
- Fabricated an anatomically accurate in vitro model of the human abdominal aorta under resting conditions.
- Used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) velocimetry to capture pulsatile velocity fields across suprarenal, infrarenal, and bifurcation segments.
- Suprarenal aortic velocities were laminar, closely matching theoretical Womersley flow solutions (r = 0.96) with a near-wall time-averaged velocity of +3.0 cm/s at 1 mm distance.
- Infrarenal aortic velocities skewed toward the anterior wall, whereas posterior wall flow was retrograde for 82% of the cardiac cycle, yielding a time-averaged velocity of -12.5 cm/s versus +3.00 cm/s near the anterior wall.
- Extreme velocity distributions at the aortic bifurcation concentrated primarily along the lateral posterior arterial walls.
Structured PICO
PPopulationAnatomically accurate in vitro model of the human abdominal aorta
IInterventionMagnetic Resonance Imaging velocimetry
OOutcomePulsatile velocity profiles and local differences in hemodynamic velocity directionssurrogate
In an in vitro model of the human abdominal aorta, low and oscillatory retrograde velocities were concentrated near the posterior wall, suggesting a strong relationship between resting retrograde velocities and atherosclerotic plaque distribution.