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Clinical Article
Interhemispheric structural connectivity abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: A DTI-based study
LIU Fan  NING Ruipeng  YU Qiurong  YIN Dazhi  LI Qianwen  LIU Ling  LI Renren  ZHANG Wei  LI Yunxia  FAN Mingxia 

Cite this article as: LIU F, NING R P, YU Q R, et al. Interhemispheric structural connectivity abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: A DTI-based study[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2023, 14(6): 9-17. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2023.06.002.


[Abstract] Objective To explore the structural connectivity changes through the corpus callosum in the interhemispheric homologous brain regions of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the relation with clinical cognitive function and activities of daily living.Materials and Methods MR diffusion tensor imaging data of 23 AD patients (AD group), 47 MCI patients (MCI group) and 37 healthy controls (HC group) were collected. Using the high-resolution transcallosal tract template, the fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of 32 transcallosal tracts connecting the interhemispheric homologous brain areas (including prefrontal lobe, sensory motor area, parietal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe) among the three groups were calculated and compared. In the AD and MCI groups, water diffusion index values (FA and MD) of transcallosal tracts to the different homologous brain regions were further correlated with the basic scale of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA_B) and the scale of Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADL).Results Compared with HC, the mean MD values of all transcallosal nerve fiber bundles in the AD group had significantly increased (P<0.05, FDR correction), and most transcallosal nerve fiber tracts of AD group (excluding the tracts to the orbital frontal, inferior frontal orbital, and ventral premotor areas) had significantly lower FA values (P<0.05, FDR correction); The mean FA values and MD values of all transcallosal nerve fiber tracts to the interhemispheric homologous brain areas in the MCI group were not significantly different from the HC group. The mean FA values and MD values of some transcallosal tracts (excluding the tracts to the prefrontal and sensorimotor areas) in the AD group were significant different from the MCI group (P<0.05, FDR correction). The mean FA values and MD values of all transcallosal nerve fiber bundles were not significantly correlated with the MoCA_B scores, but the mean FA values and MD values of multiple fiber bundles (including tracts to the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe, sensorimotor area, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe) were significantly correlated with the ADL scores (P<0.05, FDR correction).Conclusions This study suggests that AD had more severe and extensive damage in the interhemispheric structural connectivity than MCI, and in AD, the degeneration of interhemispheric structural connectivity in the callosal fibers is more associated with a decline in activities of daily living. The severity of the transcallosal nerve fiber bundles damage may be used as an important reference index to assess the ability of live activities in AD.
[Keywords] neurodegenerative disease;Alzheimer's disease;mild cognitive impairment;diffusion tensor imaging;transcallosal fiber tracts;magnetic resonance imaging

LIU Fan1   NING Ruipeng1   YU Qiurong1   YIN Dazhi2, 3   LI Qianwen1   LIU Ling1   LI Renren4   ZHANG Wei4   LI Yunxia4*   FAN Mingxia1*  

1 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

2 School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

3 Shanghai Changning District Mental Health Center, Shanghai 200335, China

4 Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

Corresponding author: Li YX, E-mail: Doctorliyunxia@163.com Fan MX, E-mail: mxfan@phy.ecnu.edu.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32271096); Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center Clinical Technology Innovation Emerging Frontier Project (No. SHDC12021110); Project Supported by the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (No. 22Y11903500); Project funding from Shanghai Municipal Health Commission (No. 2022JC018).
Received  2023-03-27
Accepted  2023-05-17
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2023.06.002
Cite this article as: LIU F, NING R P, YU Q R, et al. Interhemispheric structural connectivity abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: A DTI-based study[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2023, 14(6): 9-17. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2023.06.002.

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