Abstract
ObjectiveCerebrovascular disease results from chronic hypoxia induced by reduced perfusion. Animal studies have shown iron chelators such as desferroxamine (DFO) reduce brain damage and promote functional recovery after transient focal ischemia. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of DFO infusion on cerebral autoregulation (CA) in elderly individuals.MethodsNineteen volunteers (64±7 yrs) were enrolled in a randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled crossover study. Subjects were randomized to either DFO or placebo (PLB) infusion for 9 hours. Arterial blood pressure and middle cerebral artery blood velocity were obtained using finger photoplethysmography and transcranial Doppler ultrasound for 5 min while subjects were seated upright at 0, 6 & 9 hours infusion. A non‐linear projection pursuit regression was used to examine the effectiveness of dynamic CA with DFO and PLB infusion.ResultsDecrease in gain (P=0.0341) within CA range was observed following 9 hours DFO compared to PLB suggesting effective CA although DFO infusion reduced the blood pressure range within which CA was effective compared to the PLB (P=0.004). The latter effect could be due to vasodilatation‐induced reduction in mean arterial pressure with DFO.ConclusionDFO infusion resulted in improvement in CA in elderly individuals and may be a potential therapeutic target for improving cerebral blood flow regulation.Research supported by K23AG030967 R01NS085002 (FAS)
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