Development of a Korean Standard Structural Brain Template in Cognitive Normals and Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To generate a Korean specific brain template, especially in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) by optimizing the voxel-based analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three-dimensional T1-weighted images were obtained from 123 subjects who were 43 cognitively normal subjects and patients with 44 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 36 AD. The template and the corresponding aprior maps were created by using the matched pairs approach with considering differences of age, gender and differential diagnosis (DDX). We measured several characteristics in both our and the MNI templates, including in the ventricle size. Also, the fractions of gray matter and white matter voxels normalized by the total intracranial were evaluated. RESULTS: The high resolution template and the corresponding aprior maps of gray matter, white matter (WM) and CSF were created with the voxel-size of 1 x 1 x 1 mm. Mean distance measures and the ventricle sizes differed between two templates. Our brain template had less gray matter and white matter areas than the MNI template. There were volume differences more in gray matter than in white matter. CONCLUSION: Gray matter and/or white matter integrity studies in populations of Korean elderly and patients with AD are needed to investigate with this template.