Overview

• The Cerebrovascular Dynamics Index distinguished people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s from cognitively normal controls with an AUC of 0.96 in the study cohort.
• The non-invasive measure combines Doppler ultrasound of cerebral blood flow velocity with near-infrared spectroscopy of cortical oxygenation to model responses to blood pressure and carbon dioxide.
• In head-to-head comparisons, the index exceeded amyloid PET performance (AUC 0.78) and matched or slightly surpassed common cognitive tests such as MoCA (0.92) and MMSE (0.91).
• Findings reinforce evidence of impaired vasomotor reactivity and dysregulated cerebral perfusion as contributors to cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
• Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring and supported by NIH grants, the USC-led work lists co-authors including Helena C. Chui and Sandy Billinger and calls for replication, broader validation, and testing of perfusion-targeted interventions such as exercise, intermittent hypoxia or hypercapnia, and taVNS that remain investigational.