Relationship between Topological Attribute Change and Cognitive Function in Patients with White Matter Hyperintensities and Its Predictive Signifi-cance Evaluated by 3.0T MRI

YANG Chun; FU Chengwei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-3429.2023.09.019

Abstract：Objective To explore the relationship and predictive value of topological attribute changes and cognitive function in patients with white matter hyperintensities(WMH)evaluated by 3.0T MRI.Methods Ninety-five WMH patients from August 2019 to August 2022 were selected as the research group,and 95 non-WMH volunteers were selected as the con-trol group during the same period.The two groups were compared with the brain volume data[deep cerebral white matter hy-perintensities(DWMH),periventricular cerebral white matter hyperintensities(PWMH),total cerebral white matter hyperin-tensities(TWMH)]and the global attribute index of the network topology[clustering coefficient,the shortest path length,global efficiency,local efficiency,"small world" network attribute(γ,λ,δ)].The correlation between topological global at-tribute index and brain volume data,severity of disease and cognitive function was analyzed,and the value of topological glob-al attribute index in predicting cognitive dysfunction in WMH patients was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve.Results The DWMH volume,PWMH volume,TWMH volume,the shortest path length,γ,and δ of the re-search group were higher than those of the control group,while the global efficiency and local efficiency were lower than those of the control group(P＜0.01).The shortest path length,γ and δ were positively correlated with DWMH volume,PWMH volume,TWMH volume,severity of disease and cognitive function,respectively,while the local efficiency and global efficien-cy were negatively correlated with DWMH volume,PWMH volume,TWMH volume,severity of disease and cognitive func-tion,respectively(P＜0.01).The area under the ROC curve of the combination of shortest path length,global efficiency,lo-cal efficiency,γ and δ in predicting WMH combined with cognitive dysfunction was 0.940,which was larger than that of each indicator alone(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Conclusion The 3.0T MRI evaluation of topological attribute changes can be used to assess the severity and cognitive function of WMH patients,which can be used to predict the cognitive dysfunction of WMH patients early,so as to target treatment and improve prognosis.