The Relationship Between Vascular Reactivity and Microstructural White Matter Integrity in Dutch-Type Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

Vascular reactivity is an early marker of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA), but its relation to structural brain damage remains unclear. We aimed to study this relationship in Dutch-type CAA (D-CAA; genetic form of CAA): vascular reactivity and microstructural white matter integrity were studied through visually stimulated fMRI and ‘Peak width Skeletonized Mean Diffusivity (PSMD)’. Reduced BOLD amplitude, delayed time to peak, and delayed time to baseline were significantly related to a higher PSMD (β=-1.15e-02, β =1.08e-05, β=8.64e-06, respectively). These results indicate that vascular reactivity and microstructural white matter integrity may deteriorate hand-in-hand in D-CAA.