Cerebral Responses to Valsalva Manoeuvre Consists of Multiple Components Reflecting Different Aspects of Autonomic Function in Patients Suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Jiabao He¹, Julia L. Newton², Andrew M. Blamire¹

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is associated with cognitive problem and autonomic dysfunction, where the patient shows abnormal responses to autonomic challenge such as the Valsalva manoeuvre (VM). Valsalva manoeuvre provokes phased physiological response in blood pressure and cerebral blood flow, resulting in a complex cerebral response.In this work, we conducted dual echo GE fMRI to monitor the tissue water density and cerebral oxygenation level during the VM in CFS patients, and found that the BOLD signal dynamics correlated to measures of autonomic activity. Different components of cerebral reponses are related to various aspects of autonomic control.