An Optimized Voxel-Based Morphometry of Gray Matter Reduction in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:Optimized voxel based morphometry (VBM) has been increasingly applied to investigate differences in brain morphology between a group of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients and control subjects. Optimized VBM permits comparison of gray matter (GM) volume at voxel-level from the entire brain. The purpose of this study was to assess the regional GM volume loss measured by optimized VBM in AD compared to controls METHODS:Twenty-three AD patients and 20 cognitively normal elderly control subjects included in this study. To improve the VBM performance, the study specific template and the probability maps were generated from the control subjects. RESULTS:Optimized VBM analysis revealed GM loss, including hippocampus, amygdala, anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, insula, frontal lobe and middle temporal complex in the AD group as compared to normal control group CONCLUSION:The VBM results confirmed previous findings of temporal lobe and limbic lobe atrophic changes in AD, and suggest that these abnormalities may be confined to specific sites within that lobe, rather than showing a widespread distribution.