Neurodiagnostic Department, Cuban Neuroscience Center, Havana, Cuba.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 23;8(7):e68860. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068860. Print 2013.
This paper aims to study the abnormal patterns of brain glucose metabolism co-variations in Alzheimer disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients compared to Normal healthy controls (NC) using the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. The local cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (CMRgl) in a set of 90 structures belonging to the AAL atlas was obtained from Fluro-Deoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography data in resting state. It is assumed that brain regions whose CMRgl values are significantly correlated are functionally associated; therefore, when metabolism is altered in a single region, the alteration will affect the metabolism of other brain areas with which it interrelates. The glucose metabolism network (represented by the matrix of the CMRgl co-variations among all pairs of structures) was studied using the graph theory framework. The highest concurrent fluctuations in CMRgl were basically identified between homologous cortical regions in all groups. Significant differences in CMRgl co-variations in AD and MCI groups as compared to NC were found. The AD and MCI patients showed aberrant patterns in comparison to NC subjects, as detected by global and local network properties (global and local efficiency, clustering index, and others). MCI network's attributes showed an intermediate position between NC and AD, corroborating it as a transitional stage from normal aging to Alzheimer disease. Our study is an attempt at exploring the complex association between glucose metabolism, CMRgl covariations and the attributes of the brain network organization in AD and MCI.
本文旨在利用阿尔茨海默病神经影像学倡议（ADNI）数据库，研究与正常健康对照（NC）相比，阿尔茨海默病（AD）和轻度认知障碍（MCI）患者大脑葡萄糖代谢异常变化的模式。通过正电子发射断层扫描（PET）数据，在静息状态下获得了属于 AAL 图谱的 90 个结构的局部脑葡萄糖代谢率（CMRgl）。假设 CMRgl 值显著相关的脑区在功能上是相关的；因此，当一个区域的代谢发生改变时，这种改变将影响与之相互关联的其他大脑区域的代谢。使用图论框架研究了葡萄糖代谢网络（由所有结构之间的 CMRgl 共变矩阵表示）。在所有组中，基本上都可以在同源皮质区域之间识别出 CMRgl 的最高并发波动。与 NC 相比，AD 和 MCI 组的 CMRgl 共变存在显著差异。与 NC 受试者相比，AD 和 MCI 患者表现出异常的模式，这可以通过全局和局部网络特性（全局和局部效率、聚类指数等）检测到。MCI 网络的属性介于 NC 和 AD 之间，这表明它是从正常衰老到阿尔茨海默病的过渡阶段。我们的研究试图探索葡萄糖代谢、CMRgl 共变与 AD 和 MCI 中大脑网络组织属性之间的复杂关系。
