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This study examined cerebral arterial elasticity in healthy older adults (60-70 years) using diffuse optical tomography to measure the pulse relaxation function (PReFx) over the anterior brain. Researchers found that higher cardiovascular risk factor burden was linearly associated with reduced cerebral arterial elasticity, and that pulse pressure partially mediated the relationship between age and arterial elasticity. Notably, cerebral arterial elasticity declined significantly over just 1.5 years, regardless of baseline cardiovascular risk factors.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that PReFx could serve as a biomarker for monitoring cerebrovascular aging in healthy older adults, potentially enabling earlier detection of vascular decline before cognitive symptoms appear. The ability to detect changes in as little as 1.5 years could facilitate timely interventions to preserve brain health in aging populations.
⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Ageing is often associated with a decline in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. This study examines the relationship between cerebral arterial elasticity and measures of cardiovascular health, as well as longitudinal changes in cerebral arterial elasticity over a 1.5 year interval. The pulse relaxation function (PReFx) is a measure of regional cerebral arterial elasticity derived using diffuse optical tomography (pulse-DOT). PReFx was measured over the anterior brain, including the frontal lobes and anterior sections of temporal and parietal regions that are especially vulnerable to vascular and cognitive ageing. We examined relationships between PReFx and measures of four cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF; i.e., hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity), as well as CVRF burden (i.e., number of CVRFs) in the highly active and cognitively healthy ACTIVate cohort (60-70 years). We replicated the well-established relationship between PReFx and both age and cardiorespiratory fitness, and examined associations between PReFx, measures of cardiovascular health and CVRF burden. Higher CVRF burden was linearly associated with lower cerebral arterial elasticity. The relationship between age and cerebral arterial elasticity was partially mediated by pulse pressure, an index of hypertension. PReFx declined significantly in as little as 1.5 years, and the effect did not vary with baseline level of any of the four CVRFs. We conclude that PReFx shows promise as a putative biomarker for monitoring cerebrovascular ageing in healthy older adults.