Study on resting-state fMRI of leukoaraiosis patients with mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the changes of resting-state network connection of leukoaraiosis (LA) patients with or without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and to explore the value of resting-state fMRI in the early diagnosis of LA.  Methods A total of 49 LA patients were divided into 2 groups: LA with MCI (LA-MCI, N = 34) and LA with non-MCI (LA-NMCI, N = 15) based on Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 Items (HAMD-17) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale-14 Items (HAMA-14) were used to evaluate cognitive function, depression and anxiety symptoms of all patients and 33 normal controls. Resting-state fMRI was used to explore the brain network functional connection.  Results The age of LA-MCI patients were significantly older than that of normal controls (P = 0.003). The MMSE (P = 0.001, 0.000) and MoCA (P = 0.001, 0.000) scores in LA-MCI group were significantly higher than those in LA-NMCI group and control group. There was decreased functional connection of nuclei within the salience network in LA-MCI group compared with normal control group. Besides, the connection between salience network and default mode network (DMN) was enhanced, while connection between salience network and central executive network (CEN) was weakened. In LA-NMCI group, there was decreased functional connection of nuclei within the salience network compared with normal control group. Besides, the connection between salience network and DMN was enhanced, while the connection between salience network and CEN was weakened.  Conclusions There was significant difference in resting-state fMRI brain network functional connection between normal controls and LA patients with or without MCI. Presumably it could account for the pathophysiological mechanism of LA-related cognitive impairment to some extent.

DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2016.05.004