• M Wagner, A Jurcoane, S Volz, J Magerkurth, F E Zanella, T Neumann-Haefelin, R Deichmann, O C Singer, and E Hattingen.
• Institute of Neuroradiology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. marlies.wagner@kgu.de
• AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2012 Dec 1;33(11):2081-7.

Background And PurposeCerebral perfusion and O(2) metabolism are affected by physiologic age-related changes. High-resolution motion-corrected quantitative T2'-imaging and PASL were used to evaluate differences in deoxygenated hemoglobin and CBF of the gray matter between young and elderly healthy subjects. Further combined T2'-imaging and PASL were investigated breathing room air and 100% O(2) to evaluate age-related changes in cerebral autoregulation.Materials And MethodsTwenty-two healthy volunteers 60-88 years of age were studied. Two scans of high-resolution motion-corrected T2'-imaging and PASL-MR imaging were obtained while subjects were either breathing room air or breathing 100% O(2). Manual and automated regions of interest were placed in the cerebral GM to extract values from the corresponding maps. Results were compared with those of a group of young healthy subjects previously scanned with the identical protocol as that used in the present study.ResultsThere was a significant decrease of cortical CBF (P < .001) and cortical T2' values (P < .001) between young and elderly healthy subjects. In both groups, T2' remained unchanged under hyperoxia compared with normoxia. Only in the younger but not in the elderly group could a significant (P = .02) hyperoxic-induced decrease of the CBF be shown.ConclusionsT2'-mapping and PASL in the cerebral cortex of healthy subjects revealed a significant decrease of deoxygenated hemoglobin and of CBF with age. The constant deoxyHb level breathing 100% O(2) compared with normoxia in young and elderly GM suggests an age-appropriate cerebral autoregulation. At the younger age, hyperoxic-induced CBF decrease may protect the brain from hyperoxemia.

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