Differences in cerebral structure among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and patients with Alzheimer's disease

Xiaorui Cui; Mingpeng Li; Guanxiong Lei; Jie Wang; Jialin Pan; Sheng Zhu; Tao Wu; Liangyu Zou; Jianhui Yan

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2024.1453051

Differences in cerebral structure among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and patients with Alzheimer's disease

Front Aging Neurosci. 2024 Dec 4:16:1453051. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1453051. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Xiaorui Cui^#¹, Mingpeng Li^#², Guanxiong Lei^{3

4}, Jie Wang⁵, Jialin Pan⁶, Sheng Zhu⁷, Tao Wu⁸, Liangyu Zou⁹, Jianhui Yan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
² Department of Cardiovascular, Chenzhou No.1 People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
³ Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
⁴ Clinical Medical Technology Demonstration Base For Auditory Disease In Hunan Province, Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence of Hunan Province, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Advanced Embedded Computing and Intelligent Medical Systems, Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
⁵ International Medical Center (Department of Geriatric Medicine), Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
⁷ Department of Nuclear Medicin, Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
⁸ Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China.
⁹ Department of Neurology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology), Second Clinical College, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Brain has been shown to undergo progressive atrophy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, more evidence is needed to elucidate how the brain structure changes during the progression to AD. Here, we observed differences in the cerebral structure among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and patients with AD.

Methods: A total of 46 participants were selected and divided into AD, aMCI, and healthy control (HC) groups. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) was performed on all participants. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM) techniques were utilized to analyze sMRI data so as to identify significant differences among the specific brain regions of these three groups. Then, a correlation analysis was performed on the characteristics of the identified brain regions and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) cognitive assessment scores.

Results: The volume of the left precuneus region, which was identified by voxel-based morphometry, and the thickness of both sides of the inferior parietal, which was identified by surface-based morphometry, were shown to be less in AD/aMCI patients, compared to those of the HC. The correlation analysis showed that there were significant differences between the volume of the left precuneus region and the MMSE/MoCA scores, as well as between the thickness of the left and right sides of the inferior parietal region and the MMSE/MoCA scores.

Conclusion: The sMRI characteristics of the identified brain regions were considered to be potential predictive diagnostic biomarkers for AD.

Systematic review registration: Identifier: ChiCTR2400092593.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; SBM; VBM; mild cognitive impairment; sMRI.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Clinical guidance Project of Hunan Provincial Science and Technology (2021SK52208), Hunan Provincial Department of Education excellent youth project (21B0747), General support Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (202103071713), General support Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (202203012553), Hunan Natural Science Foundation Youth Project (2022JJ40416), Hunan Natural Science Foundation Regional Joint Fund (2023JJ50373), Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (202207012466), Key projects of scientific research fund of Hunan Provincial Department of Education (No. 22A0587), the Guidance Fund of Hunan Province in Clinical Medical Technology Innovation (No. 2021SK52202), the Guangdong Provincial Key R&D Programme of Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2018B 030336001), and Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Department’s Innovative Province Special Project – Chenzhou Industrial Factor Technology Innovation Service Platform (22sfq51).