Objective: In the longitudinal study, we aimed to investigate regional cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) changes in the patients with PD at baseline and during a 2-year follow-up. Further we set out to determine whether CVR alternation are associated with changes in cognition and brain functional connectivity.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common progressive neurodegenerative disease. Apart from dopaminergic neurons loss in the substantia nigra, vascular alternation might be a contributor to the disease progression1. It is worthy to elicit that neurovascular unit (NVU) disorders have been reported to be involved in the mechanism of PD. However, its longitudinal alteration in PD progression in vivo remains unclear. Cerebrovascular reactivity mapping without gas challenges, is a noninvasive and feasible method to detect the NVU alteration, especially suitable for the repeated examination in PD patients.

Method: We recruited 90 PD patients and 51 matched healthy control subjects (HCs). PD patients underwent clinical evaluations, a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological assessments and MR scanning at baseline (V0) and two-year follow-up visit (V1). HCs completed neuropsychological assessments and MR at baseline. CVR and functional connectivity (FC) maps were derived from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

Results: Compared with HCs, PD patients showed significantly reduced CVR in the left inferior occipital cortex and right superior temporal cortex at V0, and the cluster constricted to the same location was larger and more significant at V1. Furthermore, longitudinal left posterior cingulate cortex CVR reduction was negatively associated with decline of performance on the Trail Making Test B in PD patients. In addition, the results showed that there was a tendency for functional connectivity to be weakened from posterior to anterior with the progression of the disease.

Conclusion: Microvascular dysfunction might be involved in disease progression, subsequently weaken brain functional connectivity and partly contribute to executive function deficits in early PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/progressive-cortical-cerebrovascular-reactivity-reduction-occurs-in-parkinsons-disease-a-longitudinal-study/