Stand-alone segmentation of blood flow pulsatility measured with diffuse correlation spectroscopy.

We present a stand-alone blood flow index (BFI) pulse segmentation method for diffuse correlation spectroscopy that uses a wavelet-based representation of the BFI signal at the cardiac frequency in place of an exogenous physiological reference. We use this wavelet-based segmentation method to quantify BFI waveform morphology in a cohort of 30 healthy adults. We demonstrate that the waveform morphology features obtained with the wavelet approach strongly agree with those obtained using an exogenous blood pressure reference signal.

Cerebral vasomotor reactivity to carbon dioxide using the rebreathe technique: assessment of within-day and between-day repeatability.

The cerebral vasodilator response to increased arterial carbon dioxide (CO) concentration, termed cerebral vasomotor reactivity (CVMR), is used to assess cerebral vascular function. We sought to assess the within-day and between-day repeatability of CVMR to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia. Twelve healthy adults performed a protocol (17 ± 2 min between trials), ten performed protocol (145 ± 16 min between trials), and seventeen performed a protocol (5 ± 2 days between visits).

A biobehavioral observational study to understand the multilevel determinants of cardiovascular health in Black women: the BLOOM Study protocol.

Background: The racial/ethnic and gender disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality in the United States are evident. Across nearly every metric, non-Hispanic Black women have poorer overall cardiovascular health. Emerging evidence shows a disproportionately high burden of increased CVD risk factors in Black women of childbearing age, which has a far-reaching impact on both maternal and child outcomes, resulting in premature onset of CVD and further widens the racial disparities in CVD.

Profiling the neuroimmune cascade in 3xTg-AD mice exposed to successive mild traumatic brain injuries.

Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (rmTBI) sustained within a window of vulnerability can result in long term cognitive deficits, depression, and eventual neurodegeneration associated with tau pathology, amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques, gliosis, and neuronal and functional loss. However, a comprehensive study relating acute changes in immune signaling and glial reactivity to neuronal changes and pathological markers after single and repetitive mTBIs is currently lacking. In the current study, we addressed the question of how repeated injuries affect the brain neuroimmune response in the acute phase of injury (< 24 h) by exposing the 3xTg-AD mouse model of tau and Aβ pathology to successive (1x-5x) once-daily weight drop closed-head injuries and quantifying immune markers, pathological markers, and transcriptional profiles at 30 min, 4 h, and 24 h after each injury.