title: Sexual dimorphism in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment: a DTI study.
abstract: Previous PET and MRI studies have indicated that the degree to which pathology translates into clinical symptoms is strongly dependent on sex with women more likely to express pathology as a diagnosis of AD, whereas men are more resistant to clinical symptoms in the face of the same degree of pathology. Here we use DTI to investigate the difference between male and female white matter tracts in healthy older participants (24 women, 16 men) and participants with mild cognitive impairment (21 women, 12 men). Differences between control and MCI participants were found in fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusion (DR), axial diffusion (DA) and mean diffusion (MD). A significant main effect of sex was also reported for FA, MD and DR indices, with male control and male MCI participants having significantly more microstructural damage than their female counterparts. There was no sex by diagnosis interaction. Male MCIs also had significantly less normalised grey matter (GM) volume than female MCIs. However, in terms of absolute brain volume, male controls had significantly more brain volume than female controls. Normalised GM and WM volumes were found to decrease significantly with age with no age by sex interaction. Overall, these data suggest that the same degree of cognitive impairment is associated with greater structural damage in men compared with women.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. larodwyer@gmail.com
authors: Laurence
authors: L
authors: O'Dwyer
authors: Franck
authors: F
authors: Lamberton
authors: Arun L W
authors: AL
authors: Bokde
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Ewers
authors: Yetunde O
authors: YO
authors: Faluyi
authors: Colby
authors: C
authors: Tanner
authors: Bernard
authors: B
authors: Mazoyer
authors: Desmond
authors: D
authors: O'Neill
authors: Máiréad
authors: M
authors: Bartley
authors: Rónán
authors: R
authors: Collins
authors: Tara
authors: T
authors: Coughlan
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Prvulovic
authors: Harald
authors: H
authors: Hampel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D011859:Radiography; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors