Evaluation method of brain atrophy based on age using computed tomography

Neumerous studies on evaluation methods of brain atrophy have been published, however, none of them reported the methods considering age. In the present study, the relationship between brain atrophy and aging was investigated by ventricle brain ratio (VBR) of CT, and regression formula was computed. Areas of ventricles and brain were measured by tracing method using a touch pen of digitizer from 2 B slices of O-M line, and VBR was culculated by a personal computer. The 409 normal CT patients were used for this study. VBR was direct proportional to age, and the regression formula was Y=0.86X+51. Pati ents were separated into 8 age groups by decade. In the lower age groups than 60 years, VBR between the groups showed a significant difference. These results suggest that this regression formula is important to evaluate brain atrophy based on age. (author)