Microvascular dysfunction and neurovascular uncoupling are exacerbated in peripheral artery disease, increasing the risk of cognitive decline in older adults
Cameron D. Owens, Péter Mukli, Tamás Csípő, Ágnes Lipécz, Federico Silva-Palacios, Tarun W. Dasari, Stefano Tarantini, Andrew W. Gardner, Polly S. Montgomery, Shari R. Waldstein, J. Mikhail Kellawan, Ádám Nyúl‐Tóth, Priya Balasubramanian, Péter Sótonyi, Anna Csiszár, Zoltán Ungvári, Andriy Yabluchanskiy
Abstract
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) was associated with significantly decreased cognitive performance, impaired neurovascular coupling (NVC) responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (LDLPFC and RDLPFC), and impaired peripheral microvascular endothelial function. A positive correlation between microvascular endothelial function, NVC responses, and cognitive performance may suggest that PAD-related cognitive decrement is mechanistically linked, at least in part, to generalized microvascular endothelial dysfunction and subsequent impairment of NVC responses.