Voxel-based comparison of whole brain gray matter of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease with normal aging volunteers / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect gray matter abnormalities of whole brain in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease(AD)by voxel-based morphometry(VBM).Methods Thirteen patients with mild Alzheimer's disease and sixteen normal aging volunteers underwent 3D SPGR scanning.For every subject,data was transferred to PC to be normalized,segmented and smoothed using SPM99.Non-dependent samples T-tests were conducted to compare gray matter density voxel to voxel between the two groups.Results Significant reductions in gray matter density were found in the bilateral hippocampi and nucleus amygdalae,bilateral insulae,bilateral medial thalami,bilateral rectus gyri,right superior temporal gyrus,right caudate nucleus,right prefrontal lobe,right basal forebrain and portions of right occipital lobe.Conclusion VBM reveals significant gray matter reductions of numeral cortices in mild Alzheimer's disease.It can be a useful method to evaluate the anatomical changes in the progress of the disease.