# Imaging Cerebral and Retinal Microvasculature in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

> **NIH NIH UH3** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $299,643

## Abstract

Project Summary (Parent Award)
While Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, the contribution of vascular factors to
cognitive impairment and dementia is becoming increasingly recognized. Vascular cognitive impairment and
dementia (VCID) is most commonly caused by cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). To date, cerebral small
vessels including arterioles, capillaries and venules are inaccessible to existing imaging technologies.
Characteristic parenchymal lesions on MRI, such as lacunar infarcts, white matter lesions, and microbleeds,
have been adopted as markers of SVD. However, these parenchymal lesions are the consequences of SVD
rather than the surrogate markers of microvascular changes, and are unsuitable for early interventions to
change the course of VCID. During the past few years, our group has spearheaded the development of a suite
of cutting edge MRI technologies for in vivo and noninvasive assessment of microvascular structure and
function, including (1) high-resolution black blood MRI for direct imaging of perforating arteries; (2) arterial spin
labeling (ASL) techniques for mapping microvascular perfusion, arterial stiffness or vascular compliance (VC)
of small arteries/arterioles, and water exchange rate across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Furthermore, we
recently developed quantitative metrics for retinal capillary density and morphology using an FDA approved
optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) platform. This method allows clinically feasible, in vivo and
completely noninvasive imaging of retinal arterioles and capillaries with a spatial resolution of ~10 microns.
Capitalizing on our extensive technical expertise and longstanding track record of clinical studies on VCID, we
propose this UH2/UH3 project to further develop and evaluate a suite of MRI and OCTA markers for assessing
the structure and function of cerebral and retinal microvasculature, in a cohort of Latino subjects enrolled in the
Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES) and in the study of autosomal dominant AD in persons of Mexican
origin (Estudio de Enfermedad de Alzheimer en Jalisciences, or EEAJ). During the UH2 phase, we will further
develop and evaluate the proposed MRI and OCTA imaging markers of SVD, establish their test-retest
repeatability and clinical utility. We will work with the other participating sites and with the Coordinating Center
to establish collaborative parameters and agreements of the consortium. During the UH3 phase, we will
contribute to and execute cross-site research studies as designed by the consortium. We will perform unified
and comprehensive clinical, cognitive, imaging, genetic and biochemical assessments on the cohort of LALES
and EEAJ participants locally and perform data analyses as required by the consortium. At the closing of this
project, we expect to develop the suite of microvascular imaging markers to readiness to enter into large-scale
multi-site clinical validation studies toward FDA qualific...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10088098
- **Project number:** 3UH3NS100614-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Amir H Kashani
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $299,643
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-30 → 2021-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10088098

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10088098, Imaging Cerebral and Retinal Microvasculature in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (3UH3NS100614-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10088098. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*