Cerebrovascular Reactivity Dispersion As a New Biomarker of Recent Stroke Symptomatology in Moyamoya

Background: Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a non-atherosclerotic intracranial steno-occlusive condition placing patients at high risk for ischemic stroke. Direct and indirect surgical revascularization can improve blood flow in MMD; however, randomized trials demonstrating efficacy have not been performed and biomarkers of parenchymal hemodynamic impairment are needed to triage patients for interventions and evaluate post-surgical efficacy. We test the hypothesis that hypercapnia-induced maximum cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR ) and the more novel indicator cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) response time (CVR ), both assessed from time-regression analyses of non-invasive hypercapnic imaging, correlate with recent focal ischemic symptoms.

Methods: Hypercapnic reactivity medical resonance imaging (blood oxygenation level-dependent; echo time=35ms; spatial resolution=3.5×3.5×3.5mm) and catheter angiography assessments of cortical reserve capacity and vascular patency, respectively, in MMD participants (n=73) were performed in sequence. Time regression analyses were applied to quantify CVR and CVR . Symptomatology information for each hemisphere (n=109) was categorized into symptomatic (ischemic symptoms within six months) or asymptomatic (no history of ischemic symptoms) and logistic regression analysis assessed the association of CVR metrics with ischemic symptoms after controlling for age and sex.

Results: Symptomatic hemispheres displayed lengthened CVR (p<0.001), which was more discriminatory between hemispheres than CVR (p=0.037). CVR (p<0.001), but not CVR (p=0.127), was found to be sensitively related to age in asymptomatic tissue (0.33-unit increase/year); age-dependent normative ranges are presented to enable quantitative assessment of patient-specific impairment. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves shows that CVR predicts ischemic symptoms (p<0.001), whereas CVR does not (p=0.056).

Conclusion: Findings support that CVR metrics are uniquely altered in hemispheres with recent ischemic symptoms, motivating the investigation of CVR as a surrogate of ischemic symptomatology and treatment efficacy.