Gas-free cerebrovascular reactivity predicts cognition in older individuals

Motivation: Small-vessel-disease (SVD), a contributing risk factor in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), needs sensitive biomarkers to assess the brain. Goal(s): Our goal is to evaluate whether gas-free cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) can predict cognitive function in older individuals. Approach: We performed gas-free CVR mapping with intermittent breath modulation in two studies of elderly individuals and evaluated the relationship between gas-free CVR and global cognition. Results: Higher whole-brain gas-free CVR was correlated with better MoCA scores. Impact: Gas-free cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) using intermittent breath modulation can be used as a practical tool to evaluate cerebrovascular function and probe vascular pathology in small-vessel-disease (SVD) and vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).