T2 SHORTENING IN THE MOTOR CORTEX - EFFECT OF AGING AND CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of aging and cerebrovascular diseases on T2 shortening in the motor cortex at magnetic resonance (MR) imagin g. MATERIALS AND METHODS: High-field-strength (1.5-T) MR images of 298 neurologically normal patients (157 male patients, 141 female patient s; age range, 2-86 years) and 107 patients with cerebrovascular diseas es (66 men, 41 women; age range, 41-86 years) were evaluated retrospec tively. On T2-weighted spin-echo images, the signal intensities of the motor, sensory, parietal, temporal and prefrontal cortices were divid ed into three grades compared with the signal intensity of the frontal subcortical white matter. RESULTS: Decreased signal intensity (grade III) was not seen in any region in the neurologically normal patients younger than 60 years. After the age of 60 years, however, the signal intensity of the motor cortex decreased, and 43 (66%) of 65 neurologic ally normal patients reached grade IIE by age 80 years. In patients wi th cerebrovascular disease, grade III was seen in 12 (34%) of the 35 p atients younger than 60 years (5th and 6th decades). CONCLUSION: T2 sh ortening of the motor cortex was seen frequently in the older neurolog ically normal individuals and in patients with cerebrovascular disease s. These findings are compatible with those of a previously reported h istochemical study of normal iron deposition in the motor cortex.