Local Arterial Stiffening Assessed by MRI Precedes Atherosclerotic Plaque Formation

Atherosclerosis is known to impair vascular function and cause vascular stiffening. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential predictive role of vascular stiffening in the early detection of atherosclerosis. Therefore, we investigated the time course of early functional and morphological alterations of the vessel wall in a murine atherosclerosis model. Because initial lesions are distributed inhomogeneously in early-stage atherosclerosis, MR microscopy was performed to measure vascular elasticity locally, specifically the local pulse wave velocity and the arterial wall thickness.