Cited by 349Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAdvanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsAlzheimer's disease research and treatments

Effectiveness of regional DTI measures in distinguishing Alzheimer’s disease, MCI, and normal aging

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Nir, Talia M., Jahanshad, Neda, Villalon-Reina, Julio E., Toga, Arthur W., Jack, Clifford R., Weiner, Michael W., Thompson, Paul M.·2013·NeuroImage: Clinical

Abstract

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) recently added diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), among several other new imaging modalities, in an effort to identify sensitive biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). While anatomical MRI is the main structural neuroimaging method used in most AD studies and clinical trials, DTI is sensitive to microscopic white matter (WM) changes not detectable with standard MRI, offering additional markers of neurodegeneration. Prior DTI studies of AD report lower fractional anisotropy (FA), and increased mean, axial, and radial diffusivity (MD, AxD, RD) throughout WM. Here we assessed which DTI measures may best identify differences among AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cognitively healthy elderly control (NC) groups, in region of interest (ROI) and voxel-based analyses of 155 ADNI participants (mean age: 73.5 ± 7.4; 90 M/65 F; 44 NC, 88 MCI, 23 AD). Both VBA and ROI analyses revealed widespread group differences in FA and all diffusivity measures. DTI maps were strongly correlated with widely-used clinical ratings (MMSE, CDR-sob, and ADAS-cog). When effect sizes were ranked, FA analyses were least sensitive for picking up group differences. Diffusivity measures could detect more subtle MCI differences, where FA could not. ROIs showing strongest group differentiation (lowest p-values) included tracts that pass through the temporal lobe, and posterior brain regions. The left hippocampal component of the cingulum showed consistently high effect sizes for distinguishing groups, across all diffusivity and anisotropy measures, and in correlations with cognitive scores.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.nicl.2013.07.006

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  • Among the three cognitive assessments, CDR-sob showed the strongest correlations with dMRI indices, in line with prior ADNI brain imaging studies.

    “Among the three cognitive assessments, CDR-sob showed the strongest correlations with dMRI indices, in line with prior ADNI brain imaging studies (Hua et al., 2009; Nir et al., 2013).”

    From Diffusion MRI Indices and Their Relation to Cognitive Impairment in Brain Aging: The Updated Multi-protocol Approach in ADNI3 (2019) · cites this paper as Nir et al., 2013

    The Discussion reports that CDR-sob was the most widely correlated of the three assessments with diffusivity in the MCI group, in both voxel-based and ROI analyses. It does not establish that CDR-sob had the strongest correlations with dMRI indices across the full cohort or across all dMRI measures, as the unqualified claim implies. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • In ADNI2, AxDDTI was the most sensitive to differences between CN and MCI diagnosis.

    “Similarly, in ADNI2, AxDDTI was the most sensitive to differences between CN and MCI diagnosis (Nir et al., 2013).”

    From Diffusion MRI Indices and Their Relation to Cognitive Impairment in Brain Aging: The Updated Multi-protocol Approach in ADNI3 (2019) · cites this paper as Nir et al., 2013

    The Discussion (page unavailable) reports slightly larger effect sizes for axial diffusivity (AxD) when comparing controls with MCI in full-ROI analyses, supporting the sensitivity comparison. The claim omits that analysis-specific qualifier: the Results, under Voxel-based analyses (page unavailable), found no significant difference between controls and MCI as a whole for any DTI measure. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • As in prior analysis of ADNI2, FADTI was the least sensitive DTI measure.

    “As in our prior analysis of ADNI2 (Nir et al., 2013), FADTI was the least sensitive DTI measure.”
  • dMRI has been used in numerous studies to understand the effects of AD on white matter microstructure and brain connectivity.

    “dMRI has since been used in numerous studies to understand the effects of AD on white matter (WM) microstructure and brain connectivity (Daianu et al., 2013a,b; Nir et al., 2013; Prasad et al., 2013).”
  • Lower FADTI and higher MDDTI are most frequently reported in studies of AD.

    “Lower FADTI and higher MDDTI are most frequently reported in studies of AD (Kavcic et al., 2008; Clerx et al., 2012; Nir et al., 2013; Maggipinto et al., 2017; Mayo et al., 2017)”

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3 of the 131 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Daianu M. Jahanshad N. Nir T.M. Dennis E. Toga A.W. Jack C.R. Weiner M.W. Thompson P.M. ADNI Analyzing the structural k-core of brain connectivity networks in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease MICCAI NIBAD 2012 52 62
  2. Gutman B. Svarer C. Leow A.D. Yanovsky I. Toga A.W. Thompson P.M. Creating unbiased minimal deformation templates for brain volume registration Proceedings of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Conference 2012

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Authors
Nir, T. M., Jahanshad, N., Villalon-Reina, J. E., Toga, A. W., Jack, C. R., Weiner, M. W., & Thompson, P. M.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • Mayo Clinic (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
Corresponding author
Thompson, Paul M.
Venue
NeuroImage: Clinical
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013
Volume
3
Pages
180-195
ISSN
2213-1582 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2028748733
Cited by
348
References
131
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 21
FWCI
18.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • NeuroImage Clinical (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • ADNI (U01 AG024904)
  • National Institute on Aging
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
  • Abbott
  • Alzheimer's Association
  • Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
  • Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd.
  • AstraZeneca
  • Bayer HealthCare
  • BioClinica, Inc.
  • Biogen Idec Inc.
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
  • Eisai Inc.
  • Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc.
  • Eli Lilly and Company
  • F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
  • Genentech, Inc.
  • GE Healthcare
  • Innogenetics, N.V.
  • IXICO Ltd.
  • Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC.
  • Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC.
  • Medpace, Inc.
  • Merck & Co., Inc.
  • Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC.
  • Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
  • Pfizer Inc.
  • Servier
  • Synarc Inc.
  • Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • NIH (P30 AG010129, K01 AG030514)
  • NIA
  • NIBIB
  • National Library of Medicine
  • National Center for Research Resources (AG016570, EB01651, LM05639, RR019771)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, normal aging, diffusion tensor imaging, fractional anisotropy, white matter diffusivity, white matter microstructure, temporal lobe, neurodegeneration biomarkers, cognitive impairment detection, voxel-based analysis, region of interest analysis

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