title: Regional white matter hyperintensities in normal aging, single domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and mild Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Few studies have examined white matter hyperintensities (WMH) along the cognitive continuum between single-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment (sd-aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aims of our study were to explore relationships between the extent and location of WMH and disease severity along the cognitive continuum and to determine whether differences in the distribution of WMH could be predictive of specific patterns of cognitive impairment. We compared cognitive function, vascular risk factors, and regional (frontal lobe, parieto-occipital [PO] lobe, temporal lobe, periventricular [PV] white matter and deep white matter) WMH volume in 37 patients with mild AD, 23 patients with sd-aMCI, and 24 age-matched and education-matched normal controls. A quantitative volumetric method was applied to measure WMH burden. Total and regional WMH burdens, except for those in the temporal lobe, were significantly correlated with age (p<0.01). We found a trend toward increasing WMH volume with disease severity, higher in AD than in sd-aMCI and lowest in the controls. Total WMH volume was associated with the global cognitive test score. In multiple linear regression analysis, PV WMH volume, but not deep WMH volume, strongly predicted performances on the Controlled Oral Word Association test and the Color Word Stroop test after adjusting for important demographic variables. Only PO WMH volume was a significant predictor of a cognitive test score when frontal and temporal WMH volumes were simultaneously entered into the regression model. The extent and distribution of WMH, especially in the PV and PO regions, were associated with disease severity and reduced cognition.
authors: Department of Neurology, Kyung Hee Medical Center, School of Medicine Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemoon-ku, Seoul 130-702, Republic of Korea.
authors: Jung Hwa
authors: JH
authors: Kim
authors: Kyoung Jin
authors: KJ
authors: Hwang
authors: Jun-Hyun
authors: JH
authors: Kim
authors: Young Ha
authors: YH
authors: Lee
authors: Hak Young
authors: HY
authors: Rhee
authors: Key-Chung
authors: KC
authors: Park
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D000647:Amnesia / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013223:Statistics as Topic