Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Cortical and Subcortical Volumetric Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease: Association with Clinical Severity
TL;DR
Automated MRI volumetry may support the quantitative assessment of neurodegeneration in clinically defined AD and MCI, although these findings require external validation in larger, longitudinal, biomarker-characterized cohorts.
Abstract
Background/Objectives: This study evaluated automated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumetry for characterizing structural brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cognitively healthy controls (HC), and examined its association with cognitive performance. Methods: This retrospective observational study included consecutively enrolled individuals aged ≥65 years. AD dementia and MCI were diagnosed according to the 2011 National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) clinical criteria. Automated volumetric analysis of structural MRI was used to obtain the total intracranial volume-normalized cortical and subcortical volumes, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compartments, and hemispheric asymmetry indices. Between-group comparisons were corrected using the Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate. Prespecified volumetric markers were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis and internally validated logistic regression models. Results: The study included 102 participants (34 per group). Compared with HC, the AD group showed lower total cerebrum, right hippocampal, and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACgG) volumes and higher CSF volumes. Compared with MCI, the AD group exhibited lower thalamic and caudate volumes. CSF volume showed the highest individual discriminative performance for differentiating AD from HC (AUC = 0.837), whereas the combined hippocampal–ACgG–CSF model showed the best performance for differentiating MCI from HC (AUC = 0.826). After adjustment for diagnostic group, cognitive performance remained positively associated with hippocampal volume and negatively with CSF and lateral ventricular volumes. Conclusions: Automated MRI volumetry may support the quantitative assessment of neurodegeneration in clinically defined AD and MCI. Combined volumetric markers improved discrimination between MCI and HC, although these findings require external validation in larger, longitudinal, biomarker-characterized cohorts.