Brain perfusion and permeability change in Alzheimer's Disease patients.

Motivation: Investigation of neurovascular pathophysiologic change in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Goal(s): Investigation of cerebral perfusion and permeability changes in AD versus mild cognitive impaired (NCI) and healthy control (HC) groups. Approach: Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability were acquired using arterial spin labeling and dynamic contrast enhanced MR imaging in AD dementia (n=7), MCI (n=20) and HC (n=19). Results: We find that higher permeability in subcortical gray matter (GM) and GM lobes in AD than in HC. We observe that cognitive assessment score is positively correlated to CBF in GM, indicating that hypoperfusion in GM parallels cognitive decline. Impact: Cognitive impairment could be linked to neurovascular BBB disruption and CBF reduction.BBB and CBF changes can be distinctly captured by MRI methods in both MCI and dementia stages of AD. The degree of these changes relates to stage of AD.