White Matter Abnormalities In Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective: The objective of this study was to analysis the changes of diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)parameters in white matter of patients with mild cognitive impairment(MCI)using tract-based spatial statistics(TBSS),and to determine abnormal regions in white matter of patients with MCI,and to discuss the value of multi-parameter TBSS for the diagnosis on MCI.Methods: Thirty MCI patients(MCI group)and thirty normal controls(NC group)were enrolled in the study.All subjects underwent diffusion tensor imaging on a 3.0T MR system.The raw data was processed by PANDA software,and multi-parameter TBSS was used for DTI analysis.The differences of DTI parameters between MCI and NC were analyzed with independent-samples T test(P<0.05).The correlation between DTI parameters and MMSE scores were investigated in the regions that have significant differences between two groups(P<0.05).Results: Compared with NC,in white matter of patients with MCI,the regions with decrease of FA value and increase of DA,DR,MD value were found in corpus callosum,bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus(P<0.05,cluster>1000).The regions with only decrease of FA value and increase of DR,MD value were found in middle cerebellar peduncle and left posterior thalamic radiation(P<0.05,cluster>1000).The regions with only increase of DR,MD value were found in bilateral superior corona radiata(P<0.05,cluster>1000).Many regions’ DTI parameter values were found positive or negative corrected with MMSE scores.Conclusion: The abnormalities in white matter of patients with MCI are widespread based on TBSS.Multi-parameter TBSS has contributed to the diagnosis on MCI,and can reflect the degree of cognitive impairment in patients with MCI at the same time.