School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Aging (Albany NY). 2024 Sep 18;16(18):12473-12497. doi: 10.18632/aging.206112.
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and arterial transit time (ATT), markers of brain vascular health, worsen with age. The primary aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify modifiable determinants of CBF and ATT in healthy older adults ( = 78, aged 60-81 years). Associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and CBF or ATT were of particular interest because the impact of cardiorespiratory fitness is not clear within existing literature. Secondly, this study assessed whether CBF or ATT relate to cognitive function in older adults. Multiple post-labelling delay pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling estimated resting CBF and ATT in grey matter. Results from multiple linear regressions found higher BMI was associated with lower global CBF (β = -0.35, = 0.008) and a longer global ATT (β = 0.30, = 0.017), global ATT lengthened with increasing age (β = 0.43, = 0.004), and higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with longer ATT in parietal (β = 0.44, = 0.004) and occipital (β = 0.45, = 0.003) regions. Global or regional CBF or ATT were not associated with processing speed, working memory, or attention. In conclusion, preventing excessive weight gain may help attenuate age-related declines in brain vascular health. ATT may be more sensitive to age-related decline than CBF, and therefore useful for early detection and management of cerebrovascular impairment. Finally, cardiorespiratory fitness appears to have little effect on CBF but may induce longer ATT in specific regions.
脑血流 (CBF) 和动脉转运时间 (ATT) 是脑血管健康的标志物，会随年龄增长而恶化。本横断面研究的主要目的是确定健康老年人（n=78，年龄 60-81 岁）中可改变的 CBF 和 ATT 决定因素。心肺功能与 CBF 或 ATT 之间的关联特别有趣，因为心肺功能的影响在现有文献中尚不清楚。其次，本研究评估了 CBF 或 ATT 是否与老年人的认知功能有关。使用多次后标记延迟伪连续动脉自旋标记法测量灰质的静息 CBF 和 ATT。多元线性回归的结果发现，较高的 BMI 与较低的全脑 CBF（β=-0.35，p=0.008）和较长的全脑 ATT（β=0.30，p=0.017）相关，全脑 ATT 随年龄增长而延长（β=0.43，p=0.004），较高的心肺功能与顶叶（β=0.44，p=0.004）和枕叶（β=0.45，p=0.003）的 ATT 延长相关。全脑或局部 CBF 或 ATT 与处理速度、工作记忆或注意力无关。总之，预防体重过度增加可能有助于减轻与年龄相关的大脑血管健康下降。ATT 可能比 CBF 对年龄相关下降更敏感，因此对早期检测和管理脑血管损伤有用。最后，心肺功能似乎对 CBF 影响不大，但可能会使特定区域的 ATT 延长。
