Analysis of the whole brain gray matter volume changes in patients with mild cognitive impairment of different sub-types based on voxel-based MRI morphological measurement

HU Hao; GE Jihui; LI Lulu; ZHANG Ailing; LINAG Hongxia; CHEN Yong

doi:10.20258/j.cnki.1006-9011.2025.12.003

Abstract：Objective Volume changes of whole brain gray matter in patients with different subtypes of mild cognitive impair-ment(MCI)were analyzed by voxel-based morphological measurements.Methods A total of 98 MCI patients were selected,in which 49 with amnesia were assigned to aMCI group and 49 without amnesia to naMCI group.Additionally,45 healthy volun-teers for physical examination during the same period were selected as a control group.On the day of admission,a 1.5T supercon-ducting MRI scanner was used to scan the entire brain.The scanning sequences included T2-weighted imaging,fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequence,and phase-contrast gradient echo sequence.The raw image data obtained from each scanning se-quence were imported into a post-processing workstation.Image preprocessing was performed using the DARTEL toolbox based on SPM12,and random effect analysis was conducted using SPM12 software.Clusters with statistically significant differences in this study were overlaid onto a high-resolution T1-weighted imaging template to generate pseudo-color images and the gray matter atrophy regions in specific brain areas of aMCI and naMCI patients were analyzed.SPM was allowed for the acquisition of voxel coordinates with the highest T values within each cluster from the MNI brain atlas.Results Compared to the control group,the aMCI group showed reduced gray matter volume in some brain regions,including the left inferior frontal gyrus,left insula,left occipital lobe,right hippocampus,left posterior central gyrus,right middle frontal gyrus,right posterior central gyrus,left supe-rior temporal gyrus,and right thalamus(all P<0.05).Compared to the control group,the naMCI group also showed reduced gray matter volume in some brain regions,including the left superior temporal gyrus,right superior temporal gyrus,right middle fron-tal gyrus,left middle temporal gyrus,right lingual gyrus,and right inferior temporal gyrus(all P<0.05).Compared to the naMCI group,the aMCI group showed reduced gray matter volume in some brain regions,including the right superior temporal gyrus,left superior temporal gyrus,left inferior frontal gyrus,right lingual gyrus,right middle frontal gyrus,right inferior frontal gyrus,primary visual cortex,and right inferior temporal gyrus(all P<0.05).Conclusion The voxel-based morphological measure-ment technique can effectively detect the changes of whole brain gray matter volume in patients with different subtypes of MCI,and the regions of whole brain gray matter volume reduction in aMCI and naMCI are different.