Regional cerebral blood flow decline can predict atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease spectrum
Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by symptoms such as dementia, personality changes, and executive dysfunction. Brain atrophy and structural changes based on the MRI play an important role as a valid biomarker of AD and can support the clinical diagnosis of AD. The decline in the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) is believed to be among the first changes in Alzheimer’s continuum. The reason for this reduction in cerebral blood flow is not fully understood yet. Previous studies revealed the association between amyloid-beta and rCBF pattern and suggested that reduced rCBF is an early consequence of neural death and is prior to the considerable grey matter loss. In this study we investigated the association between rCBF and brain structural changes in three different groups of subjects consisted of control (CN), MCI, and AD groups. Our findings revealed a significant correlation between rCBF and structural changes including cortical volume, subcortical volume, surface area, and thickness in all groups after adjusting for age, sex, and APOE genotyping status. As our investigation, cerebral blood flow as measured by ASL-MRI might independent from Aβ and tau accumulation predict future structural changes and causes neurodegeneration in relation to AD development.