Cerebrovascular Reactivity and Neurovascular Coupling in Multiple Sclerosis — A Systematic Review

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The inflammatory processes observed in the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis (MS) could damage the endothelium of the cerebral vessels and lead to a dysfunctional regulation of vessel tonus and recruitment, potentially impairing cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and neurovascular coupling (NVC). Impaired CVR or NVC correlates with declining brain health and potentially plays a causal role in the development of neurodegenerative disease. Therefore, we examined studies on CVR or NVC in MS patients to evaluate the evidence for impaired cerebrovascular function as a contributing disease mechanism in MS. Twenty-three studies were included (12 examined CVR and 11 examined NVC). Six studies found no difference in CVR response between MS patients and healthy controls. Five studies observed reduced CVR in patients. This discrepancy can be because CVR is mainly affected after a long disease duration and therefore is not observed in all patients. All studies used CO2 as a vasodilating stimulus. The studies on NVC demonstrated diverse results; hence a conclusion that describes all the published observations is difficult to find. Future studies using quantitative techniques and larger study samples are needed to elucidate the discrepancies in the reported results.

Original languageEnglish
Article number912828
JournalFrontiers in Neurology
Volume13
Number of pages15
ISSN1664-2295
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Vestergaard, Frederiksen, Larsson and Cramer.

    Research areas

  • cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebrovascular disease, cerebrovascular hemodynamics, cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), multiple sclerosis, neurovascular coupling (NVC)

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