Diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) via estimating the density of gray matter using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in the brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Abstract

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transmition phase between the normal elderly and demance which is due to the loss of brain cells, tends to irreversible loss of mental abilities and should be predicted at early stage. Common methods of diagnosis are biochemical and psychological tests. Recently, ragrding the developments in analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), it has been attended as a noninvasive and lowcost method. In this study, we tried to diagnos mild cognitive impairment via estimating the volume of gray matter using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in brain MRI. Methods: 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment and 20 normal subjects aged 66.4 ± 4.6 and 65.3 ± 3.9 years, respectively, were assessed. All subjects underwent neuropsychological testing using Neuropsychiatry Unit Cognitive assessment tool and were scanned with 1.5T MRI. Images were pre-processed and analyzed using SPM8 running on Matlab2013b software. Finally for statistical analyses, modulated images of two groups were compared. Findings: Patients with mild cognitive impairment had significantly lower brain gray matter density in superior frontal gyrus (P = 0.013), inferior temporal gyrus (P = 0.013), inferior frontal gyrus (P = 0.017), paracentral lobule, superior temporal gyru, paracentral lobule (P = 0.022), and insula and middle temporal gyrus (P = 0.030). Conclusion: In this study were found several regions of local brain atrophy in patients with mild cognitive impairment within the regions known to be involved in early brain atrophy in mild cognitive impairment that reduce gray matter density. © 2016, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All Rights Reserved.