Analysis of the structural and functional features of brain MRI in patients with diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction

LIANG Fei; WANG Jiawei; XU Qian

doi:10.20258/j.cnki.1006-9011.2025.02.001

Abstract：Objective To investigate the structural and functional features of brain MRI in patients with diabetes-related cog-nitive dysfunction.Methods Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)in our hospital were selected as the study subjects.According to the existence of cognitive impairment,the patients were divided into T2DM-MCI group,with 60 patients with MCI,and normal cognition group,with 60 patients.And 60 patients with healthy physical examination were included as the control group.Brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)and neuropsychological scale tests(Abbreviated Intelligent Mental State Assess-ment Form(MMSE),Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale(MoCA),Auditory Language Learning Test(AVLT),Digital Breadth Test(DST),Verbal Fluency Test(VFT),and Connection test(TMT))were performed.The cognitive function,brain MRI structure and functional features of the three groups were compared.Results Cognitive function assessed by various neuro-psychological scales showed that T2DM-MCI group had worse performance than control group and T2DM group(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the total volume of white matter between the three groups(P>0.05).The total volume of gray mat-ter in T2DM-MCI group was lower than that in T2DM group and control group,and the total volume of gray matter in T2DM group was lower than that in control group(P<0.05).Brain MRI showed that compared with the control group,the volume of gray mat-ter in the superior temporal gyrus,middle temporal gyrus,fusiform gyrus,superior frontal gyrus,medial frontal lobe and ante-rior cuneus was significantly reduced in T2DM group,and the volume of gray matter in the hippocampus,parahippocampal gy-rus,amygdala and limbic system of uncinate gyrus was decreased in addition to more extensive atrophy in the upper cerebral re-gion in T2DM-MCI group.Compared with T2DM group,only the gray matter volume in the left middle temporal gyrus in T2DM-MCI group was significantly reduced(P<0.05).Conclusion Gray matter atrophy can be seen in patients with diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction,and the degree of atrophy in the middle temporal gyrus may reflect the severity of cognitive impairment.