Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
J Neuroimaging. 2012 Jan;22(1):21-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2010.00543.x. Epub 2011 Feb 18.
The purpose of our study was aimed to analyze the sex- and age-related differences of brain metabolism in healthy individuals.
Consecutive 100 healthy subjects, 50 males and 50 females, undergoing routine 2-[(18)F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) for health checkup in our hospital were retrospectively enrolled in this study. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used for analyses of the FDG PET images to disclose the possible effects of age on brain metabolism in males and females as well as the differences of brain metabolism between male and female groups.
In males and females, decreased brain metabolism with aging is found in bilateral lateral orbital prefrontal and right anterior cingulate cortices. In comparisons between sexes, males are found to have more brain metabolism than females in bilateral visual cortices and cerebellum.
Our report discloses different sex- and age-related brain metabolism. Decreased brain metabolism with aging in males and females is similar to findings reported in previous literatures. However, whether declined brain function or volume with aging causing metabolic changes is unknown and should be further evaluated. Nevertheless, the sex-related differences are possibly compatible with the historical observation of better performance in visual-spatial tasks in males than females.
本研究旨在分析健康个体中脑代谢的性别和年龄相关性差异。
回顾性纳入我院 100 例因健康体检行常规 2-[(18)F]-氟-2-脱氧-d-葡萄糖正电子发射断层扫描（FDG PET）的健康受试者，其中男、女各 50 例。采用统计参数图（SPM）分析 FDG PET 图像，以揭示年龄对男性和女性脑代谢的可能影响，以及男女组间脑代谢的差异。
在男性和女性中，随着年龄的增长，双侧眶额外侧前额叶和右侧前扣带回皮质的脑代谢降低。在性别比较中，男性双侧视觉皮质和小脑的脑代谢高于女性。
本报告揭示了不同的性别和年龄相关的脑代谢。男性和女性随年龄增长而出现的脑代谢降低与以往文献报道的结果相似。然而，尚不清楚是否是与年龄相关的脑功能或体积下降导致代谢变化，需要进一步评估。尽管如此，性别相关的差异可能与男性在视觉空间任务上表现优于女性的历史观察结果一致。
