Manus Donahue1, 2, Erin Hussey3, Tracy Porchak1, Swati Rane1, Matthias van Osch4, Nolan Hartkamp5, Jeroen Hendrikse5, Brandon Ally, 23
1Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; 2Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Neurology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; 4Radiology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands; 5Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
The overall aim of this work is to apply a novel, planning-free regional perfusion imaging (RPI) approach in patients with varying cognitive impairment to better understand the relationship between flow territory asymmetry, cognitive performance, and dementia risk. Average (n=20) flow-territory maps demonstrate high symmetry within the vertebrobasilar flow territory, and between right and left middle cerebral artery flow territories; however, volunteers with lower cognitive scores demonstrated increased flow territory asymmetry (P<0.05). These results demonstrate the first planning-free application of RPI in patients with cognitive impairment, and furthermore support an association between cognitive performance and asymmetric collateral flow patterns.