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Published on: December 28, 2013
Does cerebral blood flow decline in healthy aging? A PET study with partial-volume correction
C C Meltzer1, M N Cantwell, P J Greer
1Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Summary
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) may not decline in healthy aging. Correcting for age-related brain volume loss is crucial, as uncorrected PET data may falsely suggest reduced perfusion.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Gerontology
- Physiology
Background:
- Controversy exists regarding cerebral perfusion changes in healthy aging.
- Previous Positron Emission Tomography (PET) studies reported inconsistent findings on aging-related reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF), oxygen, and glucose metabolism.
- Age-related cerebral volume loss may dilute PET measurements, confounding results.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether cerebral perfusion declines with healthy aging.
- To assess the impact of partial-volume correction for cerebral atrophy on PET-derived CBF measurements.
- To clarify the relationship between age and CBF in healthy individuals.
Main Methods:
- Acquired CBF PET scans using [15O]H2O in 27 healthy individuals (age range, 19-76 years).
- Applied an MR-based algorithm to correct for partial-volume effects from cerebral atrophy.
- Compared CBF measurements before and after partial-volume correction between young/midlife and elderly subgroups.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in mean cortical CBF between young/midlife and elderly subgroups disappeared after partial-volume correction (P = 0.66).
- Uncorrected data showed a mild inverse correlation between age and cortical CBF, which was absent in corrected data.
- Corrected CBF values were similar between young/midlife (62±10 mL/100 mL/min) and elderly (61±4.8 mL/100 mL/min) groups.
Conclusions:
- CBF may remain stable in healthy aging.
- Failure to correct for age-related cerebral atrophy can lead to misinterpretation of PET-based physiological measurements.
- This study highlights the importance of partial-volume correction in aging neuroimaging research.
