[Regional cerebral blood flow in children--normal value and regional distribution of cerebral blood flow in childhood]

Abstract

The changes in CBF and rCBF through the entire age range include the rapid period in childhood was reported. Sixteen children between the ages of 1 and 15 and 14 adults were studied. These 30 subjects were either volunteers of out-patients without CT and EEG abnormalities. rCBF was measured by the 133Xe intravenous injection method using Varmet rCBF analyzer. Ther relationship between age and CBF, the correlation coefficient was calculated based on the regression equations and the regression curve with the highest correlation was chosen. For the analysis of rCBF, he mean rCBF values (ISI) of 3 channels corresponding to the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes were expressed as a percentage of the hemispheric CBF. The hemispheric blood flow (ISI and CBF gray) of children less than 5 years of age was approximately twice that found in adults. This value decreased rapidly with age and in the 10-15 years the blood flow was approximately 1.3-fold that of adults. Thereafter, there was a slow decrease and a negative correlation with age was found. The decrease showed the correlation on the following equations; y = 146.5 - 58.5 log x. (r = -0.903) for ISI and log y = 2.26 - 0.29 log x. (r = -0.881) for CBF gray, which was statistically significant. In contrast, the CBF white showed a slightly higher value in the 1-2 years old children, but thereafter the CBF did not show a notable decreases with age. Through the entire age range, a best fit for the Fw values was found with : y = 18.3 + 37.5/x. (r = 0.798), which was also statistically significant.