Autonomic Dysfunction, Brain Blood Flow, and Cognitive Decline in Veterans with Gulf War Illness

Abstract

The incidence of multi-symptom illness or Gulf War Illness (GWI) in the Veterans deployed during the Gulf War is estimated to be 25-32 . The primary goal of this project is to examine cerebral blood flow responses to chemical and metabolic stress in Veterans with GWI compared with age and deployment-matched Veterans. We hypothesize that GWI is associated with both vascular dysfunction in the cerebral circulation and autonomic dysfunction. Participants will take part in a laboratory visit for autonomic function testing, and a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) visit to determine brain structure and intracranial blood flow measurements at rest and in response to physiological stress. These experiments represent a novel and comprehensive approach and address fundamental and significant unresolved physiological questions in how GWI affects the human brain, with relevance to GWI symptoms.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1146851

Entities

People

  • Jill N. Barnes

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Blood Flow
  • Covid-19
  • Department Of Defense
  • Dysfunction
  • Information Operations
  • Law
  • Magnetic Resonance
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Maryland
  • Persian Gulf Syndrome
  • Stress (Physiology)
  • Students
  • Training
  • Universities
  • Wisconsin

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.