Patients with type 2 diabetes exhibit cognitive impairment with changes of metabolite concentration in the left hippocampus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with cognitive dysfunction. Previous studies have reported the relationship between cerebral metabolite changes and glucose levels. However, the specific aspects of cognition that are affected by metabolic changes in T2DM- related cognitive impairment remain undetermined. In this study, 188 T2DM patients and 266 controls were recruited. Proton magnetic resonance spectra with a single voxel stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) were acquired from the left hippocampus and the frontal lobe. Presence of T2DM negatively affected the scores of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), sub-tests (i.e., attention and language) of MMSE, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) according to the Beijing version, and sub-tests (i.e., visuospatial/executive reasoning, attention, and language) of MoCA, rather than the Wechsler Memory Scale – Revised in China (WMS-RC), and all memory sub-tests contained with the MMSE and MoCA frameworks. T2DM positively affected creatine and myoinositol peak areas from the left hippocampus, rather than metabolites in the left frontal lobe. Negative correlations were shown between the left hippocampal myoinositol levels and language scores, and between the left hippocampal creatine levels and visuospatial/executive scores in T2DM. These findings suggest that T2DM may be an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment. Further, the cognitive domains of visuospatial /executive reasoning, attention and language may be predominantly impaired in the early phases of T2DM-related cognitive impairment. In addition, left hippocampal myoinositol and creatine concentrations were associated with cognitive impairment in patients with T2DM.