title: Age-Related Changes of Normal Cerebral and Cardiac Blood Flow in Children and Adults Aged 7 Months to 61 Years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cerebral and cardiac blood flow are important to the pathophysiology and development of cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the age dependence of normal cerebral and cardiac hemodynamics in children and adults over a broad range of ages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 52 children (aged 0.6-17.2 years) and 30 adults (aged 19.2-60.7 years) without cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases were included in this study. Intracranial 4-dimensional flow and cardiac 2-dimensional phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging were performed for all participants to measure flow parameters in the major intracranial vessels and aorta. Total cerebral blood flow (TCBF), cardiac and cerebral indexes, brain volume, and global cerebral perfusion (TCBF/brain volume) were evaluated. Flow analysis revealed that TCBF increased significantly from age 7 months to 6 years (P<0.001) and declined thereafter (P<0.001). Both cardiac and cerebral indices declined with age (P<0.001). The ratio of TCBF to ascending aortic flow declined rapidly until age 18 years (P<0.001) and remained relatively stable thereafter. Age-related changes of cerebral vascular peak velocities exhibited a trend similar to TCBF. By comparison, aortic peak velocities maintained relatively high levels in children and declined with age in adults (P<0.001). TCBF significantly correlated with brain volume in adults (P=0.005) and in 2 pediatric subgroups, aged <7 years (P<0.001) and 7 to 18 years (P=0.039).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cerebral and cardiac flow parameters are highly associated with age. The findings collectively highlight the importance of age-matched control data for the characterization of intracranial and cardiac hemodynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (C.W., M.M.) Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.).
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.).
authors.forename: Amir R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Honarmand
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.).
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schnell
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, IL (R.K., S.E.S., A.S.).
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, IL (R.K., S.E.S., A.S.).
authors.forename: Samantha E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Schoeneman
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.) Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (S.A.A., A.S.) Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (S.A.A.).
authors.forename: Sameer A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.).
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (C.W., M.M.) Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.).
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Markl
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (C.W., A.R.H., S.S., S.A.A., J.C., M.M., A.S.) Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (S.A.A., A.S.) Department of Medical Imaging, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, IL (R.K., S.E.S., A.S.).
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaibani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: 4‐dimensional flow; cardiac flow; cerebral blood flow; hemodynamics; magnetic resonance imaging