Association of age and sex with cerebral blood flow measured using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling imaging

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been shown to decline with age and differs between men and women. However, limited work has been conducted on cognitively unimpaired subjects. Furthermore, most investigations focus on gray matter (GM), with few results reported for white matter (WM), in which CBF is lower and represents a particularly challenging measurement. We investigate associations of age and sex with CBF in GM and WM regions in a cohort of cognitively unimpaired subjects across a wide age range. We find significant correlations between CBF and age, as well as sexual dimorphism of CBF, in critical brain structures.