Study of diffusion tensor imaging in the identification of mild cognitive impairment

Background and Objective:
We aimed to determine whether and how diffusion tensor
imaging(DTI) could identify mild cognitive impairment
(MCI).
Materials and methods:A total of 50 subjects were recruited
for a multi-modal imaging (3T MRI and DTI) study :
mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 30),cognitive normal(
CN) (n = 20). Measure and compare the region of
interests (ROI): ADC(apparent diffusion coefficient) and
FA(fractional anisotropy) values of bilateral hippocampus,
bilateral temporal lobe, bilateral frontal lobe, genu
and splenium of corpus callosum(CC),bilateral posterior
cingulate gyrus. The correlation between the FA values of
MCI group and the sub-item scores of MOCA scale was
analyzed.
Results:The results showed that the FA values of the left
hippocampus and the corpus callosum of the MCI group
was lower than that of the CN group(P<0.01).The FA values
of the bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus of the MCI
group was lower than that of the CN group(P<0.05).The
ADC values of hippocampus was higher than that of CN
group(P<0.01). The FA values of the lesion area in the
MCI group was positively correlated with the computational
power, delayed recall, and abstract thinking function
scores in the MOCA scale sub-item.
Conclusion:Partial white matter(WM) fiber tracts had
Varying degrees of defects.The FA values of the left hippocampus
,genu of corpus callosum and bilateral posterior
cingulate gyrus decreased. The FA value of lesion area
in MCI group was positively correlated with the scores
of calculating power, delayed recall and abstract thinking
function in each item of MOCA scale.The value of FA
can indicate the level of cognitive function to some extent.
Therefore, DTI has certain diagnostic significance in
identifying MCI