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. 2024 May 28:16:1344920.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1344920. eCollection 2024.

The characteristics of brain atrophy prior to the onset of Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study

Ying Hu  1   2 , Ting Zhu  2 , Wei Zhang  2   3   4
Affiliations

The characteristics of brain atrophy prior to the onset of Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study

Ying Hu et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to use the onset time of Alzheimer's disease (AD) as the reference time to longitudinally investigate the atrophic characteristics of brain structures prior to the onset of AD.

Materials and methods: A total of 328 participants from the ADNI database with clear onset of AD and structural imaging data were included in our study. The time before the onset of AD (abbreviated as BAD) was calculated. We investigated the longitudinal brain changes in 97 regions using multivariate linear mixed effects regression models.

Results: The average BAD was -28.15 months, with a range from -156 to 0 months. The 54 brain regions showed significant atrophy prior to the onset of AD, and these regions were mainly distributed in the frontal and temporal lobes. The parietal and occipital lobe exhibited relatively less atrophy than the other brain lobes. Sex, age, and magnetic field strength had greater direct impacts on structural indicators than APOE genotype and education. The analysis of interaction effects revealed that the APOE ε4 mutation carriers exhibited more severe structural changes in specific brain regions as the BAD increased. However, sex, age, and education had minimal regulatory influence on the structural changes associated with BAD.

Conclusion: Longitudinal analysis, with the onset time point of AD as the reference, can accurately describe the features of structural changes preceding the onset of AD and provide a comprehensive understanding of AD development.

Keywords: 3D T1; Alzheimer’s disease; brain atrophy; dementia; longitudinal study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart of the data screening procedure.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The longitudinal distributions and scatter plots of some cortical indicators. This figure shows the longitudinal distribution of cortical volume in left superior frontal lobe (A), surface area in left rostral middle frontal lobe (B), the cortical thickness in left caudal middle frontal lobe (C) and the scatter plots of cortical volume in left superior frontal lobe (D), surface area in left rostral middle frontal lobe (E), and left caudal middle frontal lobe (F). BAD, the time before the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. RC, regression coefficients; the regression coefficients listed in the figure are the nonstandard regression coefficients.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The longitudinal distribution and scatter plots of volume in right hippocampus and right lateral ventricle. This figure shows the longitudinal distribution of volume in the right hippocampus (A), right lateral ventricle (B) and the scatter plots of volume in the right hippocampus (C), right lateral ventricle (D). BAD, the time before the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. RC, regression coefficients; the regression coefficients listed in the figure are the nonstandard regression coefficients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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