Novel Vascular Manifestations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (NOVASC COPD)

Cognitive impairment is a known consequence of cerebral small-vessel disease. Moderate to severe cognitive impairment has been shown in up to 60% of certain individuals with COPD and is likely to profoundly influence an individual's ability to manage their disease.

In addition to cerebral small vessel damage and cognitive dysfunction, other organs such as the heart, kidneys, and retina are likely to be susceptible to small-vessel damage in COPD. Several large population studies have shown that COPD is a significant independent risk factor for myocardial infarction, with the effect most marked in early, mild disease.

We propose to compare non-invasive MR brain imaging of white matter microstructure (diffusion tensor), cerebral perfusion (arterial spin labelling) and accumulated cerebral small vessel disease (cerebral microbleeds), in COPD patients to smokers without COPD. In addition we plan to explore mechanisms of cerebral small vessel disease in COPD by looking for associations between arterial stiffness, end organ vascular damage and cognitive function.