The vasodilation and vasoconstriction properties of cerebral arterioles (arteriolar vasomotor function) would be a biomarker of early diagnosis of dementia. Although the vasodilation ability has been studied by using vasodilators such as Diamox, these vasodilators cause non-natural extreme vasodilation. Focusing on the natural arteriolar vasomotion induced by respiratory variation of blood CO2, we have reported a method to evaluate cerebral arteriolar vasomotor function by spectral analysis of fluctuation of venous MRI signal. In this study, we improved our method and applied it to young smokers, and demonstrated the degeneration of arteriolar vasomotor function after a few years of chronic smoking.
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