Comparison of brain microstructure alterations on diffusion kurtosis imaging among Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and cognitively normal individuals

Abstract

ObjectiveOur study aimed to explore the differences in brain microstructure in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in individuals with normal cognition using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to identify a potential non-invasive biomarker of AD.Materials and methodsA total of 61 subjects were included in our study, including 20 subjects diagnosed with AD, 21 patients diagnosed with amnestic MCI, and 20 cognitively normal individuals. We acquired magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and DKI images were processed. Twelve regions of interest were drawn, and various parameters were measured and analyzed using SPSS version 11.0 software.ResultsComparative analysis showed that differences in brain regions in terms of mean diffusion (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK) between groups were the most marked. Precuneus MD, temporal MK, precuneus MK, and hippocampal MK were significantly correlated with neuropsychological test scores. Hippocampal MK showed the strongest correlation with the medial temporal lobe atrophy score (r = −0.510), and precuneus MD had the strongest correlation with the Koedam score (r = 0.463). The receiver operating curve analysis revealed that hippocampal MK exhibited better diagnostic efficacy than precuneus MD for comparisons between any group pair.ConclusionDKI is capable of detecting differences in brain microstructure between patients with AD, patients with MCI, and cognitively normal individuals. Moreover, it compensates for the deficiencies of conventional MRI in detecting pathological changes in microstructure before the appearance of macroscopic atrophy. Hippocampus MK was the most sensitive single parameter map for differentiating patients with AD, patients with MCI, and cognitively normal individuals.

Joint diffusional kurtosis magnetic resonance imaging analysis of white matter and the thalamus to identify subcortical ischemic vascular disease

“…Previous studies have shown that MK and K radial exhibited a greater extent and degree of SIVD–AD differences than K axial within the WM 12 and thalamus 8 . Another report has shown that radial metrics could possess higher sensitivity in detecting AD, mild cognitive impairment, and cognitively normal individuals 13 . As consistent with previous reports, the radial metrics could provide higher sensitivity in detecting the microstructural alterations especially in SIVD and AD.…”

MR imaging and outcome in neonatal HIBD models are correlated with sex: the value of diffusion tensor MR imaging and diffusion kurtosis MR imaging

“…Neuroimaging is widely used to assist with the diagnosis and neurodevelopmental prediction of infants with HIE. Studies have compared DKI-related parameters with the indicators provided by DTI, including studies involving clinical research pathologies and applications, such as the developing brain (Grinberg et al, 2017 ; Shi et al, 2019 ), glioma (Raab et al, 2010 ; Van Cauter et al, 2012 ), epilepsy (Guo et al, 2022 ), stroke (Hui et al, 2012b ; Umesh Rudrapatna et al, 2014 ), traumatic brain injury (Wang et al, 2018 ), multiple sclerosis (Raz et al, 2013 ), autism (McKenna et al, 2020 ), Alzheimer's disease (Chu et al, 2022 ), schizophrenia (McKenna et al, 2019 ), Huntington's chorea (Blockx et al, 2012 ), and Parkinson's disease (Bai et al, 2021 ). However, studies on the application of DKI to HIE are relatively rare.…”