Every time the heart beats, it pumps blood through the vessels of the brain, causing them to expand slightly and then relax, much like the rise and fall of blood that pulses through the veins when you feel the pulse. pulse on the wrist. This pulsation in the brain helps distribute blood evenly to different areas of the brain, ensuring that all parts receive the oxygen and nutrients they need to function properly. In healthy vessels, the pulse wave is damped before reaching smaller vessels, where high pulsatility could be harmful. This new metric provides a comprehensive measure of small vessel pulsatility risk.
An article recently published in Scientific Reports – Nature by Sergio Dempsey as first author with colleagues Dr Soroush Safaei, Dr Gonzalo Maso Talou from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, together with co-author Dr Holdsworth (Mātai and FMHS & CBR from the University of Auckland), describe the New metric based on 4D flow MRI technology.
This innovative metric is particularly crucial because increased vascular pulsatility is linked to several brain conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. By precisely measuring how pulsatility is transmitted in the brain, researchers can better understand the underlying mechanism of these diseases and potentially guide the development of new treatments.
Current MRI methods face limitations due to anatomical variations and measurement limitations. The new technique eliminates this problem by integrating thousands of measurements across all brain vessels, rather than looking for one point at a time as with traditional methods. This provides a richer metric representative of the entire brain.
“The ability to measure how pulsatility is transmitted through the arteries of the brain could revolutionize our approach to neurological diseases and support the investigation of hypotheses about vascular damage,” Dempsey explained. “Our method allows for a detailed assessment of the brain’s vascular health, which is often compromised in neurodegenerative disorders.”
The study also highlighted the potential to improve clinical assessments and research on brain health. By integrating this new metric into routine diagnostic procedures, healthcare providers can offer more accurate and personalized care plans for people at risk for or suffering from cognitive impairment.
In addition to their implications for patient care, researchers have made their tools available to the public, integrating them into pre-existing open source software. This allows scientists and doctors around the world to adopt the advanced methodology, encouraging further research and collaboration in the field of neurology.
The research team is planning further studies to explore the applications of this technique in larger and more diverse populations, starting with the ‘Digital Twin Dementia Study’ which will begin in Mātai later this month. Results from the initial study of the metric also identified important sex differences in vascular dynamics, kicking off a new study focused on sex-related dynamics that is expected to begin at Mātai and the Center for Advanced MRI (CAMRI) in November .