The elasticity of the ascending aorta in healthy volunteers and hypertension patients were examined by using quantitative tissue velocity imaging (QTVI), and the age-related change in the as-cending aortic elasticity was investigated. The anterior and posterior walls of the ascending aorta were imaged with tissue Doppler method in all the subjects and QTVI was performed. Stable curves were obtained from 173 hypertension patients and 185 healthy adults. The peak early diastolic veloc-ity (Ve), peak late diastolic velocity (Va) and peak systolic velocity (Vs) were measured. The relation of age with these measures was assessed. The results showed that the elasticity of the ascending aorta was much lower in the hypertension patients than in normal controls (P<0.05), and the elasticity was decreased with age in both groups (P<0.05). Our results suggested that QTVI, a new non-invasive ul-trasonic technique, is helpful for the assessment of the aortic elasticity in hypertension patients. The elasticity of the ascending aorta in healthy volunteers and hypertension patients were examined by using quantitative tissue velocity imaging (QTVI), and the age-related change in the as-cending aortic elasticity was investigated. The anterior and posterior walls of the ascending aorta were The peak early diastolic veloc-ity (Ve), peak late diastolic velocity (Va) and peak systolic velocity (Va) were measured in all subjects and QTVI The relation of age with these measures was assessed. The results of the elasticity of the ascending aorta was much lower in the hypertension patients than in normal controls (P <0.05), and the elasticity of decreased with age in both groups suggested that QTVI, a new non-invasive ul-trasonic technique, is helpful for the assessment of the aortic elasticity in hypertension patients.