Donald R. Dengel, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology, is lead author of an article published in the journal Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging. The article entitled “Reproducibility of blood oxygen level-dependent signal changes with end-tidal carbon dioxide alterations” examines the reproducibility of a new method to measure cerebral vascular reactivity using blood oxygen level-dependent signal changes in response to alterations in end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure during magnetic resonance imaging.

The methodology developed by this research establishes an accurate method for measuring blood vessel function in the brain, which may be used not only in
the comparison between various groups of individuals but also in longitudinal studies interested in treatment or examination of CVR over time (i.e., aging studies, traumatic brain injury evaluation).