Abstract
Blood pressure (BP) changes with age are widespread, and systemic high blood pressure (HBP) is a serious factor in developing strokes and cognitive impairment. A non-invasive methodology to detect changes in human brain’s vasculature using Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) data and correlation of cerebrovascular changes to mean arterial pressure (MAP) is presented. MRA data and systemic blood pressure measurements were gathered from patients (n = 15, M = 8, F = 7, Age = 49.2 ± 7.3 years) over 700 days (an initial visit and then a follow-up period of 2 years with a final visit.). A novel segmentation algorithm was developed to delineate brain blood vessels from surrounding tissue. Vascular probability distribution function (PDF) was calculated from segmentation data to correlate the temporal changes in cerebral vasculature to MAP calculated from systemic BP measurements. A 3D reconstruction of the cerebral vasculature was performed using a growing tree model. Segmentation results recorded 99.9% specificity and 99.7% sensitivity in identifying and delineating the brain’s vascular tree. The PDFs had a statistically significant correlation to MAP changes below the circle of Willis (p-value = 0.0007). This non-invasive methodology could be used to detect alterations in the cerebrovascular system by analyzing MRA images, which would assist clinicians in optimizing medical treatment plans of HBP.
Highlights
While our segmentation algorithm significantly improves on automatic segmentation methodologies, it is limited by the resolution limit of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine performing the Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) scanning
It is hard to ask participants in a study that lasts for more than two years to visit the lab periodically to get their blood pressure measured, we suggest that taking blood pressure readings more frequently could provide more accurate observation of the mean arterial pressure (MAP) while excluding its possible temporal fluctuations, which could enhance the accuracy of this study
Alterations in the cerebral vascular tree could be non-invasively detected by the analysis of MRA imaging data
Summary
HBP is a primary or a contributing cause of mortality in about 410,000 adults each year with associated healthcare costs of $46 billion [1]. High sodium intake [2], chronic stress [3], and renal dysfunction [4] are the primary causes for HBP. Clinical studies suggest that hypertension development is correlated to changes in the vascular structure of human brains [5]. These cerebrovascular changes are hypothesized to be a significant contributor to strokes, brain lesions, cerebral ischemic injury, dementia and cognitive impairment [5,6,7]
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