Abstract #0381

Elevated Arteriolar Cerebral Blood Volume in Prodromal Huntingtons Disease

Jun Hua¹,², Paul G. Unschuld³,⁴, Russell L. Margolis³,⁵, Peter C.M. van Zijl¹,², Christopher A. Ross³,⁶

¹Neurosection, Div. of MRI Research, Dept. of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴Division of Psychiatry Research and Psychogeriatric Medicine, University of Zrich, Zrich, Switzerland; ⁵Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁶Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Neurovascular alterations have been implicated in the pathophysiology of Huntingtons Disease (HD). As arterioles are most responsive to metabolic alterations, arteriolar cerebral blood volume (CBVa) is an important indicator of cerebrovascular regulation. We show that cortical CBVa, measured with the inflow-based vascular-space-occupancy (iVASO) MRI technique, is significantly elevated in prodromal HD patients, and this effect correlates with genetic measures. By contrast, no significant brain atrophy was detected in these prodromal HD patients. Our results suggest CBVa as a potential biomarker prior to prominent brain atrophy in prodromal HD.