Cerebral glucose metabolism as a function of age in man: influence of the rate constants in the fluorodeoxyglucose method.

Measurement of the local cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (LCMRGlc) with the fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) method requires the utilization of appropriate values for the rate constants of the transport and phosphorylation processes. We measured these rate constants as a function of age to determine whether a decline in LCMRGlc as a function of age, in prior studies with the FDG method, actually represents changes in the rate constants. We found that measurements of LCMRGlc are not significantly affected by changes in rate constants as a function of aging, and that LCMRGlc did not change significantly with age.