School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Alzheimer Center Limburg, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Brain Cogn. 2011 Mar;75(2):154-63. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2010.11.003. Epub 2010 Dec 3.
Cortical grey matter atrophy patterns have been reported in healthy ageing and Alzheimer disease (AD), but less consistently in the parietal regions of the brain. We investigated cortical grey matter volume patterns in parietal areas. The grey matter of the somatosensory cortex, superior and inferior parietal lobule was measured in 75 older adults (38 cognitively stable and 37 individuals with cognitive decline after 3 years). Dementia screening 6 years after scanning resulted in nine AD cases from the cognitively stable (n=3) and cognitive decline group (n=6), who were assigned to a third group, the preclinical AD group. When regional differences in cortical volume in the parietal lobe areas were compared between groups, significant differences were found between either the cognitive decline or stable group on the one hand and preclinical AD individuals on the other hand in the inferior parietal lobule. Group membership was best predicted by the grey matter volume of the inferior parietal lobule, compared to the other parietal lobe areas. The parietal lobe was characterised by a differential atrophy pattern based on cognitive status, which is in agreement with the 'last-developed-first-atrophied' principle. Future studies should investigate the surplus value of the inferior parietal lobe as a potential marker for the diagnosis of AD compared to other brain regions, such as the medial temporal lobe and the prefrontal lobe.
大脑皮质灰质萎缩模式在健康衰老和阿尔茨海默病（AD）中已有报道，但在大脑顶叶区域的报道则不太一致。我们研究了顶叶区域的大脑皮质灰质体积模式。在 75 名老年人（38 名认知稳定和 37 名认知下降 3 年后）中测量了感觉皮质、上顶叶和下顶叶的灰质。扫描后 6 年进行痴呆筛查，从认知稳定组（n=3）和认知下降组（n=6）中得到 9 例 AD 病例，将其分配到第三组，即临床前 AD 组。当比较顶叶区域皮质体积的区域差异时，发现认知下降或稳定组与临床前 AD 个体之间，在下顶叶存在显著差异。与其他顶叶区域相比，下顶叶的灰质体积对组别的预测最佳。顶叶的特征是基于认知状态的不同萎缩模式，这与“后发展先萎缩”的原则一致。未来的研究应该调查下顶叶作为 AD 诊断的潜在标志物与其他脑区（如内侧颞叶和前额叶）相比的附加价值。
