Heart disease can be detected in the hospital by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR)- a device that uses a large magnet. CMR is used to test how healthy the heart muscle is and how well the heart is pumping. We will test a new method to see how helpful it is to quickly get good pictures and if this is useful for testing the health of heart muscle in patients with heart disease.

Patients diagnosed with an enlarged aorta (aneurysm) or separation of the layers of the aorta (dissection) can suffer complications. The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of proteins and their effects on the aortic tissue wall.