LOS ANGELES: Researchers have discovered a non-invasive method to measure vascular compliance, or how stiff an artery is, in the human brain, a finding that may have ramifications for preventing stroke and the early diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease.
Using a new MRI technique, the team measured the volume of cerebral arteries twice using a technique called Arterial Spin Labeling, which can magnetically “label” the blood in arteries without the use of an external agent. The team measured once at the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle, when the heart was pumping the blood into the brain, and again at the diastolic phase, when the heart was relaxing.