Cerebrovascular Reactivity and White Matter Hyperintensities In Sporadic Small Vessel Disease

Abstract

An impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is indicated to be an important contributor to the appearance of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). CVR is defined as a measure of the capacity of cerebral blood vessels to dilate in response to a vasoactive stimulus and WMHs are acknowledged as a neuroimaging marker for late-stage SVD. Over the last decades, considerable research has been conducted into the association between CVR and WMH appearance. However, the exact association between CVR and WMHs was not yet investigated for sporadic SVD patients with 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Therefore, we aimed to assess both the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between CVR on 7T MRI and WMHs in sporadic SVD patients.