J. Jean Chen1,2, H.
Diana Rosas1,3, David H. Salat1,2
1Athinoula A.
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Charlestown, MA, USA; 2Department of Radiology, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 3Department of Neurology,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
White matter (WM) degeneration occurs in normal aging and age-related diseases, and was found to be strongly influenced by cerebrovascular health. However, it remains unclear how WM deterioration is associated with cerebral blood flow (CBF), a metric of vascular and metabolic health which has been associated with aging. In this work, we found CBF to be significantly associated with diffusion-tensor imaging-derived measures of WM integrity, demonstrating a definitive link between neurovascular factors and WM deterioration even within each age group. We also found a spatial correspondence between the effects of cortical perfusion and aging on underlying WM structural changes.