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Cerebral small-resistance artery structure and cerebral blood flow in normotensive subjects and hypertensive patients

  • Functional Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate whether the structure of cerebral small-resistance arteries is related to cerebral perfusion parameters as measured with dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) in a selected cohort of hypertensive and normotensive patients.

Methods

Ten hypertensive and 10 normotensive patients were included in the study. All patients underwent neurosurgical intervention for an intracranial tumor and were investigated with DSC-MRI at 1.5 T. Cerebral small-resistance arteries were dissected from a small portion of morphologically normal cerebral tissue and mounted on an isometric myograph for the measurement of the media-to-lumen (M/L) ratio. A quantitative assessment of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and volume (CBV) was performed with a region-of-interest approach. Correlation coefficients were calculated for normally distributed variables. The institutional review board approved the study, and informed consent was obtained from all patients.

Results

Compared with normotensive subjects, hypertensive patients had significantly lower regional CBF (mL/100 g/min) in the cortical grey matter (55.63 ± 1.90 vs 58.37 ± 2.19, p < 0.05), basal ganglia (53.34 ± 4.39 vs 58.22. ± 4.33, p < 0.05), thalami (50.65 ± 3.23 vs 57.56 ± 4.45, p < 0.01), subcortical white matter (19.32 ± 2.54 vs 22.24 ± 1.9, p < 0.05), greater M/L ratio (0.099 ± 0.013 vs 0.085 ± 0.012, p < 0.05), and lower microvessel density (1.66 ± 0.67 vs 2.52 ± 1.28, p < 0.05). A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between M/L ratio of cerebral arteries and CBF in the cortical grey matter (r = −0.516, p < 0.05), basal ganglia (r = −0.521, p < 0.05), thalami (r = −0.527 p < 0.05), and subcortical white matter (r = −0.612, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Our results indicate that microvascular structure might play a role in controlling CBF, with possible clinical consequences.

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Ethical standards and patient consent

We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the University of Brescia Medical School Ethics Committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

Acknowledgments

This study was partly financed by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Program “InGenious HyperCare”.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinica Medica, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Carolina De Ciuceis, Enzo Porteri, Damiano Rizzoni, Gianluca E. M. Boari & Enrico Agabiti Rosei

  2. Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Claudio Cornali, Dikran Mardighian, Marco M. Fontanella & Roberto Gasparotti

  3. Medical Physics Unit, Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy

    Chiara Pinardi

  4. Section of Neuroradiology, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Chiara Pinardi & Roberto Gasparotti

  5. Section of Anatomy, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Luigi F. Rodella & Rita Rezzani

Authors
  1. Carolina De Ciuceis
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  2. Claudio Cornali
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  3. Enzo Porteri
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  5. Chiara Pinardi
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  9. Damiano Rizzoni
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  10. Gianluca E. M. Boari
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  11. Enrico Agabiti Rosei
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  12. Roberto Gasparotti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberto Gasparotti.

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De Ciuceis, C., Cornali, C., Porteri, E. et al. Cerebral small-resistance artery structure and cerebral blood flow in normotensive subjects and hypertensive patients. Neuroradiology 56, 1103–1111 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1423-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1423-2

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