Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging techniques in hypertension and diabetes

This thesis evaluates the relationship between structural and functional aortic vessel wall alterations and end-organ damage in cross-sectional patient studies with use of MRI. These studies show that aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) in DM1 patients is mainly determined by hypertension, whereas the effect of DM1 itself on aortic PWV is marginal. Increased aortic PWV in patients with hypertension is associated with aortic and carotid vessel wall alterations. Also, increased aortic PWV is associated with cardiac as well as cerebral damage both in hypertensive and DM1 patients. Furthermore, this thesis describes and evaluates the ability of more optimized cardiac MRI-techniques for assessment of cardiovascular disease. Right coronary artery flow can be accurately and reproducibly assessed using 3T VE MRI in healthy control subjects. Furthermore, the use of standardized 7T MRI protocols for assessment of LV volumes, function and flow provides similar quantitative results when compared to 1.5T MRI. Finally, 3D three-directional VE MRI better describes LV diastolic function as compared to 2D one-directional VE MRI in patients with ischemic heart failure.Financial support by the Netherlands Heart Foundation and the Dutch Diabetes Foundation for the publication of this thesis is gratefully acknowledged. Additional fi nancial support is provided by the J.E. Jurriaanse Foundation; Foundation Imago Oegstgeest; Division of Image Processing (LKEB); Philips Healthcare Nederland; Toshiba Medical Systems Nederland; Sectra Medical Systems; Servier Nederland Farma BV; Guerbet Nederland BV; Bayer Schering Pharma; Novo Nordisk BV; Boehringer Ingelheim BV; Sanofi Aventis BV.UBL - phd migration 201