Gray and white matter changes in subjective cognitive impairment, amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: a voxel-based analysis study.

• Main Authors: Kuniaki Kiuchi, Soichiro Kitamura, Toshiaki Taoka, Fumihiko Yasuno, Masami Tanimura, Kiwamu Matsuoka, Daisuke Ikawa, Michihiro Toritsuka, Kazumichi Hashimoto, Manabu Makinodan, Jun Kosaka, Masayuki Morikawa, Kimihiko Kichikawa, Toshifumi Kishimoto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4122459?pdf=render

Subjective cognitive impairment may be a very early at-risk period of the continuum of dementia. However, it is difficult to discriminate at-risk states from normal aging. Thus, detection of the early pathological changes in the subjective cognitive impairment period is needed. To elucidate these changes, we employed diffusion tensor imaging and volumetry analysis, and compared subjective cognitive impairment with normal, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. The subjects in this study were 39 Alzheimer's disease, 43 mild cognitive impairment, 28 subjective cognitive impairment and 41 normal controls. There were no statistically significant differences between the normal control and subjective cognitive impairment groups in all measures. Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment had the same extent of brain atrophy and diffusion changes. These results are consistent with the hypothetical model of the dynamic biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease.