Abstract #0775

Association between Cerebral Blood Flow & Age-Related Changes in White Matter Microstructure

J. Jean Chen^1,2, H. Diana Rosas^1,3, David H. Salat^1,2

¹Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; ²Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; ³Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

White matter (WM) degeneration occurs in normal aging and age-related diseases, and was found to be strongly influenced by cerebrovascular health. However, it remains unclear how WM deterioration is associated with cerebral blood flow (CBF), a metric of vascular and metabolic health which has been associated with aging. In this work, we found CBF to be significantly associated with diffusion-tensor imaging-derived measures of WM integrity, demonstrating a definitive link between neurovascular factors and WM deterioration even within each age group. We also found a spatial correspondence between the effects of cortical perfusion and aging on underlying WM structural changes.