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Regional cerebral perfusion in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment: effect of cerebral small vessel disease

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Abstract

Objective

To explore the effort of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) on regional cerebral perfusion in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using NeuroGam™ software and evaluate the capability of brain perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in distinguishing MCI with and without CSVD.

Methods

34 amnestic MCI subjects entered this study, conducting neuropsychological tests, MRI and 99mTechnetium ethyl cystine dimer brain perfusion SPECT imaging. All subjects were divided into those with CSVD and those without CSVD. Perfusion value was measured with Brodmann area (BA) mapping in these two groups. Automated software (NeuroGam™) was used for semi-quantitative analyses of perfusion value and comparison with normal database.

Results

Compared with normal database, perfusion levels in BAs 23-left, 28 and 36-left of MCI without CSVD group had great deviations, while perfusion levels in BAs 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 36, 38 and 47-left of MCI with CSVD group had great deviations. Furthermore, compared with CSVD group, there was significantly lower perfusion value in BA 7-left (P < 0.001) in MCI without CSVD group.

Conclusions

CSVD could interact with pathological changes related to AD, exacerbating hypoperfusion in BAs 21, 23, 28, 36, 38 while compensating for cerebral blood perfusion disorder in BA 7-left in MCI patients. Meanwhile, MCI patients with CSVD shared similar hypoperfusion with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) in BAs 24, 25 and 47L. Brain perfusion SPECT may help improve our ability to differentiate MCI with and without CSVD.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Project: Molecular imaging study on mild cognitive impairment (No. 17411950102) and National Key Research and Development Plan Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Equipment Research and Development Project: Research and Practice of PET-CT Comprehensive Evaluation System and Training System (No. 2017YFC0113300).

Funding

Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Project: Molecular imaging study on mild cognitive impairment (No. 17411950102) and National Key Research and Development Plan Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Equipment Research and Development Project: Research and Practice of PET-CT Comprehensive Evaluation System and Training System (No. 2017YFC0113300).

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Author notes

  1. Zhe Lei and Jingjing Lou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Huashan Hopstial, Fudan University, No. 12 Urumqi M. Road, Shanghai, 200040, China

    Zhe Lei, Han Wu, Yinghui Ou, Xin Shi, Qian Xu, Keqing Shi, Yujing Zhou, Lingling Zheng & Xingdang Liu

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Fudan University Pudong Medical Center, Shanghai, China

    Zhe Lei, Jingjing Lou & Xingdang Liu

  3. Department of Neurology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Xiaohan Chen & You Yin

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  1. Zhe Lei
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Correspondence to Xingdang Liu.

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Lei, Z., Lou, J., Wu, H. et al. Regional cerebral perfusion in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment: effect of cerebral small vessel disease. Ann Nucl Med 36, 43–51 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-021-01682-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-021-01682-9

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