Evaluation of white matter lesions in patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the pattern of the cerebral white matter lesions in patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease(AD)and healthy controls using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy(~1H-MRS)and diffusion tensor imaging(DTI).Methods Twenty AD patients and Twenty healthy controls were recrnited.All subjects underwent clinical examination,neuropsychological assessment.The quantitative analysis of N-acetylaspartate(NAA),myoinositol(mI),Chotine(Cho)and Creatine(Cr)resonance signals in region of interests(ROIs)located in the paraventricular white matter region bilaterally were measured.Ratios of NAA/Cr,mI/Cr and Cho/Cr were calculated in two groups.In addition,conventional MRI and DTI scanning were received,fractional anisotropy(FA)and mean diffusivity(MD)values of white matter in the same regions were measured respectively.Results No significant difference between two groups were observed in NAA/Cr ratio(P＞0.05).A significantly increased mI/Cr and Cho/Cr were found in AD patients than in controls(P＜0.05).FA and MD values in AD patients were 0.470±0.082 and 0.771±0.099,and in controls were 0.539±0.068 and 0.691±0.064,respectively.FA value decreased significantly in AD patients(P＜0.05),M D value increased significantly in AD patients(P＜0.05).After controlling for age-related,partial correlation analysis revealed a negtive correlation between mI/Cr and FA value in the patients with AD(P＜0.05).No correlation between mI/Cr and MD was found(P＞0.05).Conclusion The results suggest that not only the gray matter is injured,but also the white matter is abnormal in AD patients.Combining ~1H-MRS with DTI alterations could provide the valuable informations about white matter lesions in AD patients.