Mini-Mental State Examination and proton spectroscopy of the posterior cingulate in Alzheimer disease

To compare metabolite ratios in the posterior cingulate with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) test scores in patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer disease and in controls. METHODS: We evaluated 29 patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer disease and 15 controls by proton spectroscopy with the voxel located in the posterior cingulate. The MMSE was applied to all patients and controls. The metabolic ratios: N-acetyl-aspartate/creatine (Naa/Cr), mio-inositol/creatine (mI/Cr) and mio-inositol/N-acetyl-aspartate (mI/Naa) were obtained and then post-processed using the MRUI software (magnetic resonance user interface). RESULTS: Correlation between Naa/Cr and mI/Naa ratios in the posterior cingulate with the MMSE was observed, and a positive correlation with Naa/Cr and negative correlation with mI/Naa were seen. The mI/r ratio presented no correlation with MMSE scores. CONCLUSION: The positive correlation with Naa/Cr, and negative correlation with mI/Naa may corroborate that neuronal density/viability is associated to a higher MMSE score.