Perfusion deficit to cholinergic challenge in veterans with Gulf War Illness

A highly plausible etiology for Gulf War Illness (GWI) is that the neural damage and cognitive deficits are associated with excessive exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting cholinergic stimulants. Our previous SPECT study provided strong indication that cerebral blood flow (CBF) in veterans with GWI may be different from those of unaffected control veterans. The present study confirmed and extended previous findings that patients with GWI have abnormal response to an inhibitory cholinergic challenge, physostigmine infusion, when compared to age-gender-education matched control veterans. The MRI-based arterial spin labeling (ASL) and phase-contrast techniques have several key advantages over SPECT, including shorter experiment duration, complete non-invasiveness, and higher spatial and temporal resolutions, and therefore may provide a cost-effective biomarker for characterization of GWI.