Associations between perivascular space, arterial pulsation damping, and cognitive impairment in elderly adults

Motivation: Quantitative PVS characteristics, e.g., volume, length, and count, may indicate neurological conditions and glymphatic function changes with aging, cognitive decline, and vascular health. Quantitatively assessing PMV may provide more insights into the glymphatic function and cognitive impairment. Goal(s): To quantify PVS volume, count, and length, and exam their relationship with cognitive function and arterial damping. Approach: PVS segmentation was performed using mcPVS-Net model. CCA-ICA damping factor was measured using oblique-sagittal PC-MRI. Cognitive tests, including MMSE and MoCA, were conducted. Results: PVS metrics including volume, count, and length in the whole brain and centrum semiovale region significantly correlated with cognitive scores and damping factor. Impact: Our findings indicate that impaired damping may lead to transmitting executive pulsatile energy into the brain and result in glymphatic system dysfunction with enlarged PVS.