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Clinical Trial
. 2014 Jun;34(6):971-8.
doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.2014.44. Epub 2014 Mar 19.

Cerebral hemodynamics in normal aging: central artery stiffness, wave reflection, and pressure pulsatility

Takashi Tarumi  1 , Muhammad Ayaz Khan  1 , Jie Liu  1 , Benjamin Y Tseng  1 , Rosemary Parker  2 , Jonathan Riley  2 , Cynthia Tinajero  2 , Rong Zhang  1
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Cerebral hemodynamics in normal aging: central artery stiffness, wave reflection, and pressure pulsatility

Takashi Tarumi et al. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2014 Jun.

Erratum in

  • J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2014 Jul;34(7):1255. Tseng, Benjamin M [corrected to Tseng, Benjamin Y]

Abstract

Blood ejected from the left ventricle perfuses the brain via central elastic arteries, which stiffen with advancing age and may elevate the risk of end-organ damage. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of central arterial aging on cerebral hemodynamics. Eighty-three healthy participants aged 22 to 80 years underwent the measurements of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and CBF velocity (CBFV) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transcranial Doppler, respectively. The CBF pulsatility was determined by the relative amplitude of CBFV to the mean value (CBFV%). Central arterial stiffness (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity), wave reflection (carotid augmentation index), and pressure were measured using applanation tonometry. Total volume of white-matter hyperintensity (WMH) was quantified from MR images. Total CBF decreased with age while systolic and pulsatile CBFV% increased and diastolic CBFV% decreased. Women showed greater total CBF and lower cerebrovascular resistance than men. Diastolic CBFV% was lower in women than in men. Age- and sex-related differences in CBF pulsatility were independently associated with carotid pulse pressure and arterial wave reflection. In older participants, higher pulsatility of CBF was associated with the greater total volume of WMH. These findings indicate that central arterial aging has an important role in age-related differences in cerebral hemodynamics.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Association between age and total cerebral blood flow (CBF) (top) and mean CBF velocity (CBFV) (bottom), and (B) the relation between total CBF and mean CBFV. Total CBF was normalized to the tissue mass. Mean CBFV was measured from the middle cerebral artery. Linear trend was observed from the relations among age, total CBF, and mean CBFV.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Association between age and systolic (top), diastolic (middle), and pulsatile (bottom) cerebral blood flow velocities (CBFVs). Quadratic trend was observed from the relations between age and the pulsatile indices of cerebral blood flow.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Whisker box plots exhibiting sex-related differences in total cerebral blood flow (CBF) (top) and diastolic CBF velocity (CBFV) (bottom). A solid line inside each box represents a median value, whereas a dot represents the mean value.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Association between diastolic cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and augmentation index (AIx) (left), augmented pressure (middle), and relative inflection time (right). Linear trend was observed from the relations between diastolic CBFV and the indices of carotid arterial wave reflection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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