Abstract #2936

Perfusion and Structural Characteristics in the Grey & White Matter of Young and Elderly Adults with White Matter Disease: A Pseudo-Continuous ASL and VBM Study

David E. Crane¹, Sandra E. Black¹,², Anoop Ganda¹, Deanna S. Reynolds³, Bradley J. MacIntosh¹,⁴

¹Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada; ²Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; ³Medical Imaging, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; ⁴Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Unlike contrast-enhanced perfusion-weighted imaging techniques like Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) relies on tracer kinetics from magnetically labeled blood water to estimate perfusion. Two disadvantages of the ASL technique are 1) the low signal-to-noise ratio and 2) the relatively short half-life. In this aging study (total N=35 elderly, 16 young) we characterize perfusion signals in grey, white and white matter diseased tissues types. A voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was performed to reveal hippocampal grey matter is negatively correlated with extent of white matter disease.