Cerebral Perfusion and Vascular Reactivity in Insulin Resistance and Obesity

Henry Rusinek¹, Jenny Ha², Po Lai Yau², Aziz Tirsi², Wai Hon Tsui², Antonio Convit²

The obesity epidemic is responsible for the increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes (DB). Using a high-resolution ASL we present evidence that brain perfusion and vascular reactivity are affected in the early stage of DB. Insulin resistant (IR) subjects had significantly lower (p=0.008) resting gray matter flow (60.04.5) compared to healthy controls (63.66.4), with a trend for hypoperfusion in DB. There was a significant detrimental effect of obesity on vascular reactivity. Our findings suggest that cerebral blood flow and vascular reactivity changes resulting from obesity and insulin resistance are reversible.