Atrophy of the cholinergic regions advances from early to late mild cognitive impairment

• Published in: Neuroradiology 2024-04, Vol.66 (4), p.543-556
• Main Authors: Lai, Ying-Liang Larry, Hsu, Fei-Ting, Yeh, Shu-Yi, Kuo, Yu-Tzu, Lin, Hui-Hsien, Lin, Yi-Chun, Kuo, Li-Wei, Chen, Cheng-Yu, Liu, Hua-Shan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alleles; Amygdala; Apolipoprotein E; Apolipoproteins; Atrophy; Cholinergics; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Diagnostic Neuroradiology; Error correction; Imaging; Impairment; Machine learning; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; Neurosurgery; Radiology; Substantia grisea; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 0028-3940; 1432-1920
• DOI: 10.1007/s00234-024-03290-6

Purpose We investigated the volumetric changes in the components of the cholinergic pathway for patients with early mild cognitive impairment (EMCI) and those with late mild cognitive impairment (LMCI). The effect of patients’ apolipoprotein 4 (APOE-ε4) allele status on the structural changes were analyzed. Methods Structural magnetic resonance imaging data were collected. Patients’ demographic information, plasma data, and validated global cognitive composite scores were included. Relevant features were extracted for constructing machine learning models to differentiate between EMCI (n = 312) and LMCI (n = 541) and predict patients’ neurocognitive function. The data were analyzed primarily through one-way analysis of variance and two-way analysis of covariance. Results Considerable differences were observed in cholinergic structural changes between patients with EMCI and LMCI. Cholinergic atrophy was more prominent in the LMCI cohort than in the EMCI cohort (P