scholarly journals Gray Matter Deterioration Pattern During Alzheimer's Disease Progression: A Regions-of-Interest Based Surface Morphometry Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanxiong Wu ◽  
Yun Peng ◽  
Ming Hong ◽  
Yingchun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Gyrification Index ◽  
Spearman’S Correlation ◽  
Alteration Pattern

Accurate detection of the regions of Alzheimer's disease (AD) lesions is critical for early intervention to effectively slow down the progression of the disease. Although gray matter volumetric abnormalities are commonly detected in patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI) and patients with AD, the gray matter surface-based deterioration pattern associated with the progression of the disease from MCI to AD stages is largely unknown. To identify group differences in gray matter surface morphometry, including cortical thickness, the gyrification index (GI), and the sulcus depth, 80 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database were split into healthy controls (HCs; N = 20), early MCIs (EMCI; N = 20), late MCIs (LMCI; N = 20), and ADs (N = 20). Regions-of-interest (ROI)-based surface morphometry was subsequently studied and compared across the four stage groups to characterize the gray matter deterioration during AD progression. Co-alteration patterns (Spearman's correlation coefficient) across the whole brain were also examined. Results showed that patients with MCI and AD exhibited a significant reduction in cortical thickness (p < 0.001) mainly in the cingulate region (four subregions) and in the temporal (thirteen subregions), parietal (five subregions), and frontal (six subregions) lobes compared to HCs. The sulcus depth of the eight temporal, four frontal, four occipital, and eight parietal subregions were also significantly affected (p < 0.001) by the progression of AD. The GI was shown to be insensitive to AD progression (only three subregions were detected with a significant difference, p < 0.001). Moreover, Spearman's correlation analysis confirmed that the co-alteration pattern of the cortical thickness and sulcus depth indices is predominant during AD progression. The findings highlight the relevance between gray matter surface morphometry and the stages of AD, laying the foundation for in vivo tracking of AD progression. The co-alteration pattern of surface-based morphometry would improve the researchers' knowledge of the underlying pathologic mechanisms in AD.

Is Olfactory Epithelium Biopsy Useful for Confirming Alzheimer’s Disease?

2018 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Dantas Costa Lima Godoy ◽  
Marco Aurélio Fornazieri ◽  
Richard L. Doty ◽  
Fábio de Rezende Pinna ◽  
José Marcelo Farfel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Amyloid Beta ◽  
Olfactory Epithelium ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Middle Turbinate ◽  
Superior Turbinate ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Amyloid Beta Proteins

Objectives: The clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are preceded by a long asymptomatic period associated with “silent” deposition of aberrant paired helical filament (PHF)-tau and amyloid-beta proteins in brain tissue. Similar depositions have been reported within the olfactory epithelium (OE), a tissue that can be biopsied in vivo. The degree to which such biopsies are useful in identifying AD is controversial. This postmortem study had 3 main goals: first, to quantify the relative densities of AD-related proteins in 3 regions of the olfactory neuroepithelium, namely, the nasal septum, middle turbinate, and superior turbinate; second, to establish whether such densities are correlated among these epithelial regions as well as with semi-quantitative ratings of general brain cortex pathology; and third, to evaluate correlations between the protein densities and measures of antemortem cognitive function. Methods: Postmortem blocks of olfactory mucosa were obtained from 12 AD cadavers and 24 controls and subjected to amyloid-beta and PHF-tau immunohistochemistry. Results: We observed marked heterogeneity in the presence of the biomarkers of tau and amyloid-beta among the targeted olfactory epithelial regions. No significant difference was observed between the cadavers with AD and the controls regarding the concentration of these proteins in any of these epithelial regions. Only one correlation significant was evident, namely, that between the tau protein densities of the middle and the upper turbinate ( r = .58, P = .002). Conclusion: AD-related biomarker heterogeneity, which has not been previously demonstrated, makes comparisons across studies difficult and throws into question the usefulness of OE amyloid-beta and PHF-tau biopsies in detecting AD.

scholarly journals Cortical Microstructural Alterations in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 2948-2960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M Vogt ◽  
Jack F Hunt ◽  
Nagesh Adluru ◽  
Douglas C Dean ◽  
Sterling C Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cortical Atrophy ◽  
Microstructural Alterations ◽  
Additional Information

Abstract In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), neurodegenerative processes are ongoing for years prior to the time that cortical atrophy can be reliably detected using conventional neuroimaging techniques. Recent advances in diffusion-weighted imaging have provided new techniques to study neural microstructure, which may provide additional information regarding neurodegeneration. In this study, we used neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), a multi-compartment diffusion model, in order to investigate cortical microstructure along the clinical continuum of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD dementia. Using gray matter-based spatial statistics (GBSS), we demonstrated that neurite density index (NDI) was significantly lower throughout temporal and parietal cortical regions in MCI, while both NDI and orientation dispersion index (ODI) were lower throughout parietal, temporal, and frontal regions in AD dementia. In follow-up ROI analyses comparing microstructure and cortical thickness (derived from T1-weighted MRI) within the same brain regions, differences in NODDI metrics remained, even after controlling for cortical thickness. Moreover, for participants with MCI, gray matter NDI—but not cortical thickness—was lower in temporal, parietal, and posterior cingulate regions. Taken together, our results highlight the utility of NODDI metrics in detecting cortical microstructural degeneration that occurs prior to measurable macrostructural changes and overt clinical dementia.

Mapping gray matter volume and cortical thickness in Alzheimer's disease

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojuan Guo ◽  
Ziyi Li ◽  
Kewei Chen ◽  
Li Yao ◽  
Zhiqun Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Matter Volume

scholarly journals Imaging beta-amyloid (Aβ) burden in the brains of middle-aged individuals with alcohol-use disorders: a [11C]PIB PET study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret R. Flanigan ◽  
Sarah K. Royse ◽  
David P. Cenkner ◽  
Katelyn M. Kozinski ◽  
Clara J. Stoughton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Pet Imaging ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Neurocognitive Dysfunction ◽  
Amyloid Aβ

AbstractNo in vivo human studies have examined the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuropathology in individuals with alcohol-use disorder (AUD), although recent research suggests that a relationship between the two exists. Therefore, this study used Pittsburgh Compound-B ([11C]PiB) PET imaging to test the hypothesis that AUD is associated with greater brain amyloid (Aβ) burden in middle-aged adults compared to healthy controls. Twenty healthy participants (14M and 6F) and 19 individuals with AUD (15M and 4F), all aged 40–65 years, underwent clinical assessment, MRI, neurocognitive testing, and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Global [11C]PiB standard uptake value ratios (SUVRs), cortical thickness, gray matter volumes (GMVs), and neurocognitive function in subjects with AUD were compared to healthy controls. These measures were selected because they are considered markers of risk for future AD and other types of neurocognitive dysfunction. The results of this study showed no significant differences in % global Aβ positivity or subthreshold Aβ loads between AUD and controls. However, relative to controls, we observed a significant 6.1% lower cortical thickness in both AD-signature regions and in regions not typically associated with AD, lower GMV in the hippocampus, and lower performance on tests of attention as well as immediate and delayed memory in individuals with AUD. This suggest that Aβ accumulation is not greater in middle-aged individuals with AUD. However, other markers of neurodegeneration, such as impaired memory, cortical thinning, and reduced hippocampal GMV, are present. Further studies are needed to elucidate the patterns and temporal staging of AUD-related pathophysiology and cognitive impairment. Imaging β-amyloid in middle age alcoholics as a mechanism that increases their risk for Alzheimer’s disease; Registration Number: NCT03746366.

scholarly journals Functional Connectivity between the Resting-State Olfactory Network and the Hippocampus in Alzheimer’s Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu ◽  
Testa ◽  
Jordan ◽  
Elyan ◽  
Kanekar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Gray Matter Volume

Olfactory impairment is associated with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and is a risk factor for the development of dementia. AD pathology is known to disrupt brain regions instrumental in olfactory information processing, such as the primary olfactory cortex (POC), the hippocampus, and other temporal lobe structures. This selective vulnerability suggests that the functional connectivity (FC) between the olfactory network (ON), consisting of the POC, insula and orbital frontal cortex (OFC) (Tobia et al., 2016), and the hippocampus may be impaired in early stage AD. Yet, the development trajectory of this potential FC impairment remains unclear. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) to investigate FC changes between the ON and hippocampus in four groups: aged-matched cognitively normal (CN), early mild cognitive impairment (EMCI), late mild cognitive impairment (LMCI), and AD. FC was calculated using low frequency fMRI signal fluctuations in the ON and hippocampus (Tobia et al., 2016). We found that the FC between the ON and the right hippocampus became progressively disrupted across disease states, with significant differences between EMCI and LMCI groups. Additionally, there were no significant differences in gray matter hippocampal volumes between EMCI and LMCI groups. Lastly, the FC between the ON and hippocampus was significantly correlated with neuropsychological test scores, suggesting that it is related to cognition in a meaningful way. These findings provide the first in vivo evidence for the involvement of FC between the ON and hippocampus in AD pathology. Results suggest that functional connectivity (FC) between the olfactory network (ON) and hippocampus may be a sensitive marker for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, preceding gray matter volume loss.

scholarly journals ANALYSES OF BRAIN CORTICAL CHANGES OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

2021 ◽  
pp. 2140025
Author(s):  
YUTING LV ◽  
WENSHUO ZHAO ◽  
XUFENG YAO ◽  
SONG XU ◽  
ZHIXIAN TANG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
Gyrification Index ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Normal Controls

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) produces complicated cortical changes in gray matter (GM) of the human brain. However, alterations in the brain cortex have not been clearly addressed. In our study, a cohort of 236 cases MR data enrolled from the ADNI database was categorized into three groups of normal controls (NCs), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. The GM morphological differences were investigated among the three groups using the magnetic resonance (MR) GM characteristics of gray matter volume (GMV), cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA) and local gyrification index (LGI) at the three levels of whole brain, bilateral hemispheres and critical brain regions. Totally, there were six critical brain regions for GMV, 11 for CT, 2 for CSA and 59 for LGI among the three groups for the no-division groups. Also, there were 11 critical brain regions for GMV, 15 for CT, 8 for CSA, 3 for LGI for female sub-groups and 4 critical brain regions for GMV, 11 for CT, 1 for CSA, 3 for LGI for male sub-groups. The four measured cortical characteristics showed reliable capability in the morphological description of GM changes of AD. In conclusion, the cortical characteristics of GMV, CT, CSA and LGI of critical brain regions showed valuable indications for GM changes of AD, and those characteristics could be used as imaging markers for AD prediction.

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