Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 27, 2025
Assessing Cerebral Autoregulation via Oscillatory Lower Body Negative Pressure and Projection Pursuit Regression
Published on: December 10, 2014
Compromised Dynamic Cerebral Autoregulation in Patients With Idiopathic Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder: A
1Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Insights
Patients with idiopathic rapid eye movement behavior disorder (IRBD) show impaired cerebral autoregulation (CA) during wakefulness. This study investigated dynamic CA in IRBD patients, revealing compromised function potentially linking to neurological symptoms.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Neurophysiology
Background:
- Idiopathic rapid eye movement behavior disorder (IRBD) may involve impaired cerebral autoregulation (CA).
- Altered cerebral perfusion and blood flow are suggested in IRBD patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) in IRBD patients during wakefulness.
- To explore correlations between dCA parameters and clinical measurements in IRBD.
Main Methods:
- Assessed dCA in 30 IRBD patients and 36 healthy controls using transcranial Doppler and finger plethysmography.
- Evaluated CA function via transfer function analysis of spontaneous oscillations in cerebral blood flow and arterial blood pressure.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in dCA parameters (phase difference, gain) between right and left middle cerebral arteries in either group.
- IRBD patients exhibited significantly lower phase difference, indicating impaired CA capability.
- Gain values were higher in IRBD patients, but this difference was not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- Cerebral autoregulation function is compromised in IRBD patients during wakefulness.
- Impaired CA may serve as an intermediate link between IRBD and the development of neurological symptoms.
Background:
Patients with idiopathic rapid eye movement behavior disorder (IRBD) have been suggested to exhibit altered cerebral perfusion and abnormal cerebral blood flow, which imply a possibility of cerebral autoregulation (CA) impairment. We aimed to investigate the dynamic CA (dCA) in patients with IRBD during wakefulness and to explore the correlations between dCA parameters and clinical measurements.
Methods:
We assessed the dCA capability of 30 patients with IRBD and 36 sex- and age-matched healthy controls by using transcranial Doppler and finger plethysmography. CA function was evaluated by transfer function analysis based on spontaneous oscillation of cerebral blood flow and arterial blood pressure. Transfer function parameters (phase difference and gain) were used to quantify the CA.
Results:
No significant differences were observed between the right and left middle cerebral artery dCA parameters (phase difference and gain) of both groups. Patients with IRBD had significantly lower phase difference than the healthy controls, indicating their impaired CA capability. Besides, the value of gain in patients with IRBD was higher than the healthy controls, but the difference did not reach statistical level.
Conclusions:
CA function is compromised in patients with IRBD during wakefulness, which might be an intermediate link between IRBD and neurological symptoms.
