Blunted cerebrovascular response is associated with elevated beta-amyloid

Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore the association of beta-amyloid accumulation and cerebrovascular response (CVR) in cognitively normal older adults. Beta-amyloid accumulation was characterized with [18F] Florbetapir positron emission tomography scans. CVR was calculated as middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity change from rest to moderate intensity exercise. We found that individuals with elevated beta-amyloid aggregation had a blunted CVR (n = 25, age 70.1 ± 4.8; 3.3 ± 3.7 cm/s) compared to non-elevated individuals (n = 45, age 72.0 ± 4.9; 7.2 ± 5.0 cm/s, p < 0.001). Further, greater beta-amyloid burden was linearly associated with less CVR across all participants (b = −11.7, p < 0.001). Greater CVR and less beta-amyloid burden were associated with processing speed (p < 0.05). This study is the first to show that CVR from rest to exercise is blunted across increased global beta-amyloid burden.