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Abnormal white matter independent of hippocampal atrophy in amnestic type mild cognitive impairment

Feng Bai1, Zhijun Zhang, David R Watson

  • 1School of Clinical Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.

Neuroscience Letters
|July 15, 2009
PubMed

Insights

White matter disruption is evident in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and may occur independently of gray matter loss. These findings offer insights into early Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Neurology
  • Biomedical Science

Background:

  • Hippocampal atrophy is a key marker in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, linked to white matter (WM) disruption.
  • White matter changes may contribute to AD pathology, but their independence from gray matter (GM) changes in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate differences in WM integrity between aMCI patients and healthy controls.
  • To explore whether WM disruption in aMCI is independent of GM loss, specifically hippocampal atrophy.

Main Methods:

  • Whole-brain voxel-based analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data.
  • Used an index of hippocampal atrophy to partial out GM effects.
  • Compared WM integrity in 32 aMCI patients and 31 healthy controls.

Main Results:

  • aMCI patients exhibited significant WM disruption in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, internal capsule, cingulate gyrus, and precuneus.
  • Evidence suggests independent patterns of WM degeneration in aMCI.
  • WM changes were observed even after accounting for hippocampal atrophy.

Conclusions:

  • WM disruption in aMCI can be independent of GM atrophy.
  • These findings enhance understanding of WM pathological changes in aMCI, a prodromal stage of AD.
  • Independent WM degeneration patterns may co-exist in the WM pathological process of aMCI.

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