Brain Advance Access originally published online on September 28, 2006
Brain 2006 129(11):2885-2893; doi:10.1093/brain/awl256
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Spatial patterns of cortical thinning in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease
1 Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre Ontario, Canada 2 Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Ontario, Canada 3 Lady Davis Institute Montreal, Quebec, Canada 4 McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Correspondence to: Noor Jehan Kabani, PhD, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 3080 Yonge Street, Suite 6020, PO Box 89, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4N 3N1 Email: nkabani{at}sten.sunnybrook.utoronto.ca
Cortical thickness is a more reliable measure of atrophy than volume due to the low variability in the cytoarchitectural structure of the grey matter. However, this more desirable measure of disease-related alterations is not fully evaluated in early dementia. The study presented here is the first to report the spatial patterns of cortical thickness in the pre-clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cortical thickness measurements for 34 healthy elderly, 62 MCI and 42 Alzheimer's disease subjects were made using fully automated magnetic resonance imaging-based analysis techniques in order to determine the pattern of cortical thinning as a function of disease progression. The thickness of the cortex decreased significantly when the healthy elderly brains were compared to those with MCI, mainly in the medial temporal lobe region and in some regions of the frontal and the parietal cortices. With the progression of disease from MCI to Alzheimer's disease, a general thinning of the entire cortex with significant extension into the lateral temporal lobe was found. In all cases, the results were more pronounced in the left hemisphere. In conclusion, we have shown that there is a specific pattern in the thinning of the cortical ribbon which is in agreement with the previous histological reports. These novel findings support the notion of increased isocortical involvement with the progression of disease.
Key Words: Alzheimer's disease; brain imaging; cerebral cortex; dementia; mild cognitive impairment
Abbreviations: MCI, mild cognitive impairment; VBM, voxel-based morphometry; HE, healthy elderly
Received April 6, 2006. Revised July 24, 2006. Accepted August 10, 2006.
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