Arterial Transit Delay Effects on Perfusion Measurement in an Elderly Cohort

Weiying Dai¹, Ajit Shankaranarayanan², David C. Alsop¹

Arterial transit delay (ATD) measurement has been proposed to eliminate the ATD errors in perfusion measurements. In elderly cohorts, potentially longer and more variable ATD may introduce systematic errors in perfusion measurement if not taken into account. A quick ATD measurement was performed in 59 elderly patients over 70 years old scheduled for elective surgical procedures. ATD was heterogeneous across different brain regions and significantly longer than the young in all regions except posterior regions. ATD measurement can improve the reliability and accuracy of perfusion measurement in the elderly population and thus should improve the sensitivity of clinical research studies involving elderly subjects.