Newman-Norlund Roger D, Kudaravalli Santosh, Merchant Anwar T, Fridriksson Julius, Rorden Chris
Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
J Periodontal Res. 2024 Dec;59(6):1184-1194. doi: 10.1111/jre.13280. Epub 2024 May 6.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of using MRI-derived tooth count, an indirect and nonspecific indicator of oral/periodontal health, and brain age gap (BAG), an MRI-based measure of premature brain aging, in predicting cognition in a population of otherwise healthy adults.
This retrospective study utilized data from 329 participants from the University of South Carolina's Aging Brain Cohort Repository. Participants underwent neuropsychological testing including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), completed an oral/periodontal health questionnaire, and submitted to high-resolution structural MRI imaging. The study compared variability on cognitive scores (MoCA) accounted for by MRI-derived BAG, MRI-derived total tooth count, and self-reported oral/periodontal health.
We report a significant positive correlation between the total number of teeth and MoCA total scores after controlling for age, sex, and race, indicating a robust relationship between tooth count and cognition, r(208) = .233, p < .001. In a subsample of participants identified as being at risk for MCI (MoCA <= 25, N = 36) inclusion of MRI-based tooth count resulted in an R change of .192 (H = 0.138 → H = 0.330), F(1,31) = 8.86, p = .006. Notably, inclusion of BAG, a valid and reliable measure of overall brain health, did not significantly improve prediction of MoCA scores in similar linear regression models.
Our data support the idea that inclusion of MRI-based total tooth count may enhance the ability to predict clinically meaningful differences in cognitive abilities in healthy adults. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence linking oral/periodontal health with cognitive function.
本研究旨在评估使用磁共振成像（MRI）得出的牙齿数量（一种间接且非特异性的口腔/牙周健康指标）和脑龄差距（BAG，一种基于MRI的脑早衰测量指标）在预测健康成年人群认知能力方面的效用。
这项回顾性研究利用了南卡罗来纳大学衰老脑队列库中329名参与者的数据。参与者接受了包括蒙特利尔认知评估（MoCA）在内的神经心理学测试，完成了一份口腔/牙周健康问卷，并接受了高分辨率结构MRI成像。该研究比较了由MRI得出的BAG、MRI得出的牙齿总数以及自我报告的口腔/牙周健康状况所解释的认知分数（MoCA）的变异性。
在控制了年龄、性别和种族后，我们报告牙齿总数与MoCA总分之间存在显著正相关，表明牙齿数量与认知之间存在紧密关系，r(208) = 0.233，p < 0.001。在被确定为有轻度认知障碍风险（MoCA ≤ 25，N = 36）的参与者子样本中，纳入基于MRI的牙齿数量导致R变化为0.192（H = 0.138 → H = 0.330），F(1,31) = 8.86，p = 0.006。值得注意的是，在类似的线性回归模型中，纳入BAG（一种有效且可靠的整体脑健康测量指标）并未显著改善对MoCA分数的预测。
我们的数据支持这样一种观点，即纳入基于MRI的牙齿总数可能会增强预测健康成年人认知能力临床有意义差异的能力。这项研究为将口腔/牙周健康与认知功能联系起来的越来越多的证据做出了贡献。
