Abstract #0486

Chang L, Sailasuta N, Ernst T

Single voxel TE-averaged PRESS was performed in four brain regions (frontal white, frontal gray and parietal gray matter, and basal ganglia) of healthy subjects to determine if the brain glutamate (GLU) concentration varies with age, gender or region. As expected, regional differences in glutamate concentration were observed, with the frontal gray matter showing the highest GLU concentrations. The GLU concentration decreased significantly with age in the frontal white matter (p=0.036), parietal gray matter (p=0.001) and basal ganglia (p=0.019) regions. However, the glutamate concentration did not vary significantly between males (n=16) and females (n=8) in any of the four brain regions.