In vivo quantification of blood flow and wall shear stress in the human abdominal aorta during lower limb exercise

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques and a custom MR-compatible exercise bicycle were used to measure, in vivo, the effects of exercise on hemodynamic conditions in the abdominal aorta of eleven young, healthy subjects. Heart rate increased from 73 +/- 6.2 beats/min at rest to 110 +/- 8.8 beats/min during exercise (p<0.0001). The total blood flow through the abdominal aorta increased from 2.9 +/- 0.6 L/min at rest to 7.2 +/- 1.4 L/min during exercise (p <0.0005) while blood flow to the digestive and renal circulations decreased from 2.1 +/- 0.5 L/min at rest to 1.6 +/- 0.7 L/min during exercise (p<0.01). Infrarenal blood flow increased from 0.9 +/- 0.4 L/min at rest to 5.6 +/- 1.1 L/min during exercise (p<0.0005). Wall shear stress increased in the supraceliac aorta from 3.5 +/- 0.8 dyn/cm2 at rest to 6.2 +/- 0.5 dyn/cm2 during exercise (p<0.0005) and increased in the infrarenal aorta from 1.3 +/- 0.8 dyn/cm2 at rest to 5.2 +/- 1.3 dyn/cm2 during exercise (p<0.0005).