Abstract #0619

Characterization of CMRO2, Resting CBF, and Cerebrovascular Reactivity in Patients with Very Early Stage of Alzheimers Disease

Binu Panjikattil Thomas¹,², Min Sheng¹, Benjamin Tseng³, Peiying Liu¹, Kristin Martin-Cook⁴, Munro Cullum⁵, Myron Weiner⁵, Benjamin Levine³, Rong Zhang³, Hanzhang Lu¹

¹Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; ²Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States; ³Institute of Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, TX, United States; ⁴Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; ⁵Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States

Early-Mild-Cognitive-Impairment (MCI) represents a pre-clinical form of Alzheimers Disease (AD). In this study, we used several MRI modalities to characterize the neurobiology in early-MCI. We first used a novel technique to measure the brains energy budget, denoted by cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), and observed that early-MCI showed 12.7% reduction compared to age-matched controls. Next, we used regional CBF to probe regions with most pronounced deficit and identified precuneus/posterior-cingulate as the foci. Finally, we compared cerebrovascular reactivity between MCI and control groups, data suggest that reactivity in early-MCI was relatively intact, indicating a metabolic/neural cause for the CBF deficit.