Abstract #0455

Kassner A, Mikulis D, Poublanc J, Crawley A, Tomlinson G

Combining CO2 manipulation with BOLD MRI is a promising for assessing regional differences in cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) which is a measurement of the brains autoregulatory capacity and important for the assessment of vascular disorders in which autoregulation is compromised or exhausted. The characterization of these pathophysiological conditions in the cerebral circulation, however, requires the knowledge of potential physiological gender-dependent differences in CVR. The objective of this study was to evaluate gender differences in CVR in normal subjects using quantitative CVR measurements by correlating BOLD MR signal intensity with square wave changes in end-tidal pressure of CO2 (pET CO2).