Uma Yezhuvath1, Jinsoo Uh1, Yamei Cheng1, Kristin Martin-Cook2, Myron Weiner2, Matthias van Osch3, Hanzhang Lu1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Alzheimers Disease Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 3Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands
Hypercapnic BOLD (5% CO2 breathing) and baseline PCASL scans were carried out in AD patients and elderly normal controls to obtain whole brain distributions of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and cerebral blood flow (CBF), respectively. AD patients revealed an anterior distribution for CVR deficits along with a posterior distribution of CBF deficits. Regions of CBF deficits did not have any underlying CVR deficits. BOLD functional MRI shows great potential as a marker of dynamic vessel reactivity as compared to CBF measurements that reflect neuronal metabolic changes.