Study of the relationship between cognitive function and hippocampus metabolic changes in patients with leukoaraiosis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between cognitive function and hippocampus metabolic changes measured by 1H ⁃ magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H ⁃ MRS) in patients with leukoaraiosis. Methods One hundred and eight patients with hypomnesis were recruited. There was 54 cases in leukoaraiosis (LA) group and also 54 in non⁃leukoaraiosis (non⁃LA) group. Mini⁃ Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) and Wechsler Memory Scale⁃Chinese Revised (WMS⁃CR) were used for assessment. A 3.0T MR was used for STEAM 1H⁃MRS analysis. The value of N⁃acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine and phosphocreatine (Cr), myoinositol (mI), choline⁃containing compounds (Cho) and glutamate complex⁃ α (Glx⁃ α) were measured in the left hippocampus. The ratio including NAA/Cr, mI/Cr, Cho/Cr and Glx⁃α/Cr were calculated. The differences between two groups were compared. Results Both MMSE and MoCA scores (24.00 and 16.50) in LA group were significantly lower than those in non⁃LA group (27.00 and 21.00) (P = 0.000). In MoCA, the scores of LA group and non⁃LA group were as follow: 1.00 and 3.00 in visuospatial execution, 4.00 and 5.00 in attention, 1.00 and 2.00 in language, 0.00 and 2.00 in delayed recall (P < 0.05). In WMS⁃CR, immediate memory scores (5.06 ± 2.86) and short⁃term memory scores (32.76 ± 13.31) of LA group were lower than those in the non⁃LA group which were (7.68 ± 4.41) and (46.95 ± 14.81) (P < 0.05). No significant difference was shown in NAA/Cr, mI/Cr, Cho/Cr and Glx⁃α/Cr ratio among two groups. Conclusion Leukoaraiosis may damage cognitive function, mainly in visual execution, attention, language and memory (especially immediate memory and short⁃term memory). No metabolic change in hippocampus via 1H⁃MRS scan was found between LA group and non⁃LA group. No relation between these changes and left hippocampus metabolic changes was seen.

DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2011.06.009