Table II.

There were statistically significant differences in the mean elastic modulus, toughness, and relative strain among the different aortic segments of the normal aorta compared with the root as a reference (Ref)

	Elastic modulus, kPa			Toughness, J/m3			Relative strain
	Est.	95% confidence interval	P value	Est.	95% confidence interval	P value	Est.	95% confidence interval	P value
Circumferential
Root	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
Ascending	−303.0	−430.4 to −175.5	<.001	−88.7	−282.4 to 104.9	.4	0.012	−0.004 to 0.028	.2
Arch	−445.1	−576.9 to −313.3	<.001	−129.9	−339.7 to 79.8	.2	0.023	0.006 to 0.040	.008
Descending	−313.6	−440.1 to −187.0	<.001	77.0	−122.3 to 276.3	.5	0.020	0.004 to 0.036	.01
Longitudinal
Root	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref	Ref
Ascending	−34.5	−139.7 to 70.8	.5	205.7	59.9 to 351.5	.007	−0.021	−0.041 to −0.001	.04
Arch	−110.6	−215.4 to −5.8	.04	120.7	−33.5 to 275.0	.1	−0.015	−0.035 to 0.005	.1
Descending	−42.4	−147.4 to 62.5	.4	−0.1	−154.6 to 154.5	.1	−0.026	−0.046 to −0.006	.01

For circumferential toughness, statistically significant differences arose when comparing aortic segments with the descending thoracic aorta as the reference, that is, differences were significant when comparing the descending with the ascending and arch.

Boldface P values represent statistical significance.