Assessing Cerebral Microvascular Compliance with High-Resolution VASO MRI at 7T

Motivation: Compliance of the cerebral microvasculature is critical for brain hemodynamics but remains challenging to measure due to the complex cerebral vascular architecture and limitations in imaging technology. Goal(s): This study aims to utilize high-resolution VASO MRI across cardiac cycles to quantify microvascular compliance at 7T. Approach: Vascular compliance (VC) was defined as the ratio of CBV changes to changes in blood pressure across a cardiac cycle, which was proportional to the change in rCBV. Results: The middle layer of grey matter exhibits lower VC than superficial and deep layers. While higher VC was observed in the white matter (WM), especially deep WM. Impact: The proposed high-resolution VASO MRI offers a promising noninvasive method for estimating cerebral microvascular compliance.