Hamamoto Yuji, Yu Yoshihiko, Asada Rikako, Mizuno Satoshi, Hasegawa Daisuke
Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Musashino, Japan.
Laboratory of Veterinary Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Musashino, Japan.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 Nov 24;9:1071002. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.1071002. eCollection 2022.
Brain atrophy is observed with aging and may cause cognitive decline or dysfunction. Aging cats may demonstrate behavioral changes related to cognitive dysfunction. In the clinical veterinary field, although the conventional region of interest method by manual or semiauto tracing on magnetic resonance imaging is used to detect atrophy of regional structures, such as the hippocampus, it is difficult to assess atrophy globally. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has been developed to detect global and regional abnormalities in humans. The purpose of the present study investigates whether the feline brain volume decreases with aging using VBM analysis.
A total of 65 cats, aged 17-200 months, without apparent neurological and behavioral signs were included in the statistical analysis.
We observed that the gray matter in the bilateral parietal lobes was decreased significantly with aging. The regions that showed decreased volume included the right postcruciate, cingulate gyrus, rostral suprasylvian/ectosylvian gyri, and the left postcruciate gyrus. No significant reduction in white matter was observed. Together, our results show that age-related brain atrophy can be detected using VBM analysis.
The age-related atrophy of the parietal cortex may not cause neurological and behavioral signs in cats. Therefore, veterinarians should consider age when assessing the relation between morphometric and functional abnormalities of the parietal cortex in cats.
脑萎缩在衰老过程中出现，并可能导致认知能力下降或功能障碍。老龄猫可能表现出与认知功能障碍相关的行为变化。在临床兽医领域，虽然通过手动或半自动追踪磁共振成像的传统感兴趣区域方法用于检测区域结构（如海马体）的萎缩，但很难对整体萎缩情况进行评估。基于体素的形态学测量（VBM）已被开发用于检测人类的整体和区域异常。本研究的目的是使用VBM分析来研究猫脑体积是否随衰老而减小。
共有65只年龄在17至200个月之间、无明显神经和行为体征的猫被纳入统计分析。
我们观察到双侧顶叶的灰质随衰老而显著减少。体积减小的区域包括右侧十字后回、扣带回、嘴侧上薛氏回/薛氏外回以及左侧十字后回。未观察到白质有显著减少。总之，我们的结果表明，使用VBM分析可以检测出与年龄相关的脑萎缩。
顶叶皮质与年龄相关的萎缩可能不会在猫身上引起神经和行为体征。因此，兽医在评估猫顶叶皮质形态测量和功能异常之间的关系时应考虑年龄因素。
