Subcortical hyperintensity volumetrics in Alzheimer’s disease and normal elderly in the Sunnybrook Dementia Study: correlations with atrophy, executive function, mental processing speed, and verbal memory

摘要

Introduction Subcortical hyperintensities (SHs) are radiological entities commonly observed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and normal elderly controls. Although the presence of SH is believed to indicate some form of subcortical vasculopathy, pathological heterogeneity, methodological differences, and the contribution of brain atrophy associated with AD pathology have yielded inconsistent results in the literature. Methods Using the Lesion Explorer (LE) MRI processing pipeline for SH quantification and brain atrophy, this study examined SH volumes of interest and cognitive function in a sample of patients with AD (n?=?265) and normal elderly controls (n?=?100) from the Sunnybrook Dementia Study. Results Compared with healthy controls, patients with AD were found to have less gray matter, less white matter, and more sulcal and ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (all significant, P Conclusions These brain-behavior relationships and correlations with brain atrophy suggest that subtle, yet measurable, signs of small vessel disease may have potential clinical relevance as targets for treatment in Alzheimer’s dementia.