@article {8773, title = {Cerebral Blood Flow Predicts Conversion of Mild Cognitive Impairment into Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease and Cognitive Decline: An Arterial Spin Labeling Follow-up Study.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {82}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {293-305}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: This is the first longitudinal study to assess regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes during the progression from normal control (NC) through mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD).

OBJECTIVE: We aim to determine if perfusion MRI biomarkers, derived from our prior cross-sectional study, can predict the onset and cognitive decline of AD.

METHODS: Perfusion MRIs using arterial spin labeling (ASL) were acquired in 15 stable-NC, 14 NC-to-MCI, 16 stable-MCI, and 18 MCI/AD-to-AD participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cognition study. Group comparisons, predictions of AD conversion and time to conversion, and Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) from rCBF were performed.

RESULTS: Compared to the stable-NC group: 1) the stable-MCI group exhibited rCBF decreases in the right temporoparietal (p = 0.00010) and right inferior frontal and insula (p = 0.0094) regions; and 2) the MCI/AD-to-AD group exhibited rCBF decreases in the bilateral temporoparietal regions (p = 0.00062 and 0.0035). Compared to the NC-to-MCI group, the stable-MCI group exhibited a rCBF decrease in the right hippocampus region (p = 0.0053). The baseline rCBF values in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) (p = 0.0043), bilateral superior medial frontal regions (BSMF) (p = 0.012), and left inferior frontal (p = 0.010) regions predicted the 3MSE scores for all the participants at follow-up. The baseline rCBF in the PCC and BSMF regions predicted the conversion and time to conversion from MCI to AD (p < 0.05; not significant after multiple corrections).

CONCLUSION: We demonstrated the feasibility of ASL in detecting rCBF changes in the typical AD-affected regions and the predictive value of baseline rCBF on AD conversion and cognitive decline.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-210199}, author = {Duan, Wenna and Zhou, Grace D and Balachandrasekaran, Arvind and Bhumkar, Ashish B and Boraste, Paresh B and Becker, James T and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Gach, H Michael and Dai, Weiying} }