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Figure 1 Short-axis magnetic resonance images of the left ventricle (LV) acquired at the midpapillary muscle level at end systole (top row) and the magnitude component of the phase-contrast gradient echo cardiography images of the ascending thoracic aorta (bottom row) from a participant in each of the three patient groups. The myocardium is gray, and the blood pool within the cavity is white in the images of the LV. Increased LV mass relative to cavity size in the patient with diastolic heart failure is displayed in the top right panel. The blackened silhouettes on the images of the aorta represent the difference in aortic area between end diastole and end systole. Cardiac cycle-dependent change in aortic area decreased with advancing age and, importantly, were most reduced in older participants with diastolic heart failure (bottom right).