Study of brain morphology change in Alzheimer’s disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment compared with normal controls

BACKGROUND: With an aggravated social ageing level, the number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is gradually increasing, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered to be an early form of Alzheimer’s disease. How to distinguish diseases in the early stage for the purposes of early diagnosis and treatment is an important topic. AIMS: The purpose of our study was to investigate the differences in brain cortical thickness and surface area among elderly patients with AD, elderly patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) and normal controls (NC). METHODS: 20 AD patients, 21 aMCIs and 25 NC were recruited in the study. FreeSurfer software was used to calculate cortical thickness and surface area among groups. RESULTS: The patients with AD had less cortical thickness both in the left and right hemisphere in 17 of the 36 brain regions examined than the patients with aMCI or NC. The patients with AD also had smaller cerebral surface area both in the left and right hemisphere in 3 of the 36 brain regions examined than the patients with aMCI or NC. Compared with the NC, the patients with aMCI only had slight atrophy in the inferior parietal lobe of the left hemisphere, and no significant difference was found. CONCLUSION: AD, as well as aMCI (to a lesser extent), is associated with reduced cortical thickness and surface area in a few brain regions associated with cognitive impairment. These results suggest that cortical thickness and surface area could be used for early detection of AD.