The cerebrovascular system is altered in MS. Using breath-hold BOLD-MRI, we tested whether pharmacological modulation of MS inflammation influences alteration in cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR). We found that CVR increased with immunomodulation and this increase was negatively correlated with pre-treatment CVR, suggesting that cerebrovascular alteration reflects disease activity. Moreover, lower CVR in the pre-treatment phase was associated with lower grey matter volume and this correlation was lost with immunomodulation, indicating an involvement of brain vasculature in neurodegeneration. Given the multiparametric characteristic of BOLD, further studies are warranted to clarify the vascular origin of our findings.
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