[Cerebral white matter bundle alterations in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type and patients with multi-infarct dementia--magnetic resonance imaging study].

The widths of the anterior white matter bundle (AWM) and the interhemispheric (AWM-TER) and intrahemispheric (AWM-TRA) bundles at the level of the foramen of Monro on horizontal inversion recovery MRI scans were measured in 17 patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT), 16 patients with multi-infarct dementia (MID) and 47 age-matched normal subjects (NOR). The area of the corpus callosum (CC) on midsagittal spin-echo MRI scans was also measured in 12 DAT, 11 MID and 36 NOR. The Mini-mental score in patients with DAT was 20.8 +/- 5.9, which was not significantly different from that of 22.9 +/- 5.4 in patients with MID. The width of AWM was not significantly decreased in either DAT or MID compared with NOR. However, the width of AWM-TER in DAT and MID showed a significant decrease from that in NOR. The width of AWM-TRA was decreased significantly only in DAT. Compared with NOR, the area of the CC in DAT and MID was decreased by 7.0% (p less than 0.05) and 6.5%, respectively. The white matter bundle has an important role in the connectivity of the brain. Although loss of white matter occurs in both DAT and MID, the change appears more diffuse in DAT than MID.