INTRODUCTION: Little is known about longitudinal decline in white matter (WM) microstructure and its associations with cognition in preclinical Alzheimers disease (AD). METHODS: Longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging and neuropsychological testing from 50 older adults who subsequently developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia (subsequently impaired, SI) and 200 cognitively normal controls. Rates of WM decline were compared between groups using voxel-wise linear mixed-effects models. Associations between change in WM and cognition were examined. RESULTS: SI had faster decline in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (R.IFOF) and bilateral splenium of the corpus callosum. Decline in R.IFOF FA was related to decline in verbal memory, visuospatial ability, processing speed, and MMSE (p≤ 0.05). Decline in bilateral splenium FA was related to decline in verbal fluency, processing speed, and MMSE (p≤ 0.05). DISCUSSION: Accelerated regional WM decline is characteristic of preclinical AD and related to domain specific cognitive decline.

中文翻译：

---

随后受损的老年人中白质微结构的加速下降及其与认知下降的关系。

简介：关于白质（WM）的纵向结构下降及其与临床前阿尔茨海默氏病（AD）认知的关系知之甚少。方法：纵向扩散张量成像和神经心理学测试来自随后发展为轻度认知障碍或痴呆（继而受损的SI）的50位老年人和200位认知正常对照。使用体素方向线性混合效应模型比较两组之间的WM下降率。WM的变化和认知之间的关联进行了审查。结果：SI在右下额枕筋膜（R.IFOF）和call体双侧脾的分数各向异性（FA）下降更快。R.IFOF FA的下降与言语记忆，视觉空间能力，处理速度和MMSE下降有关（p≤0.05）。双侧脾脏FA的下降与口语流利度，处理速度和MMSE的下降有关（p≤0.05）。讨论：加速的区域性WM下降是临床前AD的特征，并且与特定领域的认知下降有关。