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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

Published ahead of print on April 2, 2009
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1562

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 30:1388-1393, August 2009
© 2009 American Society of Neuroradiology

BRAIN

Simultaneous Measurement of Arterial Transit Time, Arterial Blood Volume, and Cerebral Blood Flow Using Arterial Spin-Labeling in Patients with Alzheimer Disease

T. Yoshiura^a, A. Hiwatashi^a, K. Yamashita^a, Y. Ohyagi^b, A. Monji^a,c, Y. Takayama^a, E. Nagao^a, H. Kamano^a, T. Noguchi^a and H. Honda^a

^a Department of Clinical Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
^b Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
^c Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Please address correspondence to Takashi Yoshiura, MD, PhD, Department of Clinical Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; e-mail: tyoshiu{at}med.kyushu-u.ac.jp

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cerebral hemodynamics abnormality in Alzheimer disease (AD) is not fully understood. Our aim was to determine whether regional hypoperfusion due to AD is associated with abnormalities in regional arterial blood volume (rABV) and regional arterial transit time (rATT) as measured by quantitative arterial spin-labeling (ASL) with multiple-delay time sampling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen patients with AD (9 men and 10 women; mean age, 74.5 ± 8.6 years) and 22 cognitively healthy control subjects (11 men and 11 women; mean age, 72.8 ± 6.8 years) were studied by using a quantitative ASL method with multiple-delay time sampling. From the ASL data, maps of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), rABV, and rATT were generated. A region of hypoperfusion due to AD was determined by statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. Mean rCBF, rABV, and rATT values within the hypoperfused region were compared between the AD and control groups.

RESULTS: Despite the significantly lower rCBF (P = .0004) in patients with AD (27.8 ± 7.1 mL/100 g/min) in comparison with control subjects (36.7 ± 6.3 mL/100 g/min), no significant difference in rATT was observed between the control (0.48 ± 0.09 seconds) and AD (0.47 ± 0.10 seconds) groups. Mean rABV was lower in the AD group (0.22 ± 0.10%) than in the control group (0.27 ± 0.12%), though the difference did not reach the level of statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed that regional hypoperfusion in AD is not associated with rATT prolongation, suggesting that the mechanism of hypoperfusion is distinct from that in cerebrovascular diseases.