Distinct Spatiotemporal Patterns of Cortical Thinning in Alzheimer's Disease-type Cognitive Impairment and Subcortical Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Overview

Journal Commun Biol

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Feb 17

PMID 38368479

Authors

Jinhee Kim

Jonghoon Kim

Yu-Hyun Park

Heejin Yoo

Jun Pyo Kim

Hyemin Jang

Hyunjin Park

Sang Won Seo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Previous studies on Alzheimer's disease-type cognitive impairment (ADCI) and subcortical vascular cognitive impairment (SVCI) has rarely explored spatiotemporal heterogeneity. This study aims to identify distinct spatiotemporal cortical atrophy patterns in ADCI and SVCI. 1,338 participants (713 ADCI, 208 SVCI, and 417 cognitively unimpaired elders) underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), amyloid positron emission tomography, and neuropsychological tests. Using MRI, this study measures cortical thickness in five brain regions (medial temporal, inferior temporal, posterior medial parietal, lateral parietal, and frontal areas) and utilizes the Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn) model to predict the most probable subtype and stage for each participant. SuStaIn identifies two distinct cortical thinning patterns in ADCI (medial temporal: 65.8%, diffuse: 34.2%) and SVCI (frontotemporal: 47.1%, parietal: 52.9%) patients. The medial temporal subtype of ADCI shows a faster decline in attention, visuospatial, visual memory, and frontal/executive domains than the diffuse subtype (p-value < 0.01). However, there are no significant differences in longitudinal cognitive outcomes between the two subtypes of SVCI. Our study provides valuable insights into the distinct spatiotemporal patterns of cortical thinning in patients with ADCI and SVCI, suggesting the potential for individualized therapeutic and preventive strategies to improve clinical outcomes.

Citing Articles

Cortical structural degeneration and functional network connectivity changes in patients with subcortical vascular cognitive impairment.

Mao H, Shi Y, Gao Q, Xu M, Hu X, Wang F Neuroradiology. 2025; .

PMID: 39899046 DOI: 10.1007/s00234-025-03550-z.

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