TY - JOUR
T1 - Multilevel Deficiency of White Matter Connectivity Networks in Alzheimer's Disease
T2 - A Diffusion MRI Study with DTI and HARDI Models
AU - Wang, Tao
AU - Shi, Feng
AU - Jin, Yan
AU - Yap, Pew Thian
AU - Wee, Chong Yaw
AU - Zhang, Jianye
AU - Yang, Cece
AU - Li, Xia
AU - Xiao, Shifu
AU - Shen, Dinggang
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81201030, 61210001, 81571298, and 61473190), the China Ministry of Science and Technology (2009BAI77B03), the National Key Clinical Disciplines at Shanghai Mental Health Center (OMA-MH, 2011-873), the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee Grants (134119a2600, 14411965000), the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Technological Innovation Special Fund (YG2014MS39), the SHSMU-ION Research Center for Brain Disorders, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University K. C. Wong Medical Fellowship Fund. This work was also supported in part by NIH Grants AG041721, EB006733, EB008374, and EB009634
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Tao Wang et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in elderly people. It is an irreversible and progressive brain disease. In this paper, we utilized diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to detect abnormal topological organization of white matter (WM) structural networks. We compared the differences between WM connectivity characteristics at global, regional, and local levels in 26 patients with probable AD and 16 normal control (NC) elderly subjects, using connectivity networks constructed with the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model and the high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) model, respectively. At the global level, we found that the WM structural networks of both AD and NC groups had a small-world topology; however, the AD group showed a significant decrease in both global and local efficiency, but an increase in clustering coefficient and the average shortest path length. We further found that the AD patients had significantly decreased nodal efficiency at the regional level, as well as weaker connections in multiple local cortical and subcortical regions, such as precuneus, temporal lobe, hippocampus, and thalamus. The HARDI model was found to be more advantageous than the DTI model, as it was more sensitive to the deficiencies in AD at all of the three levels.
AB - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in elderly people. It is an irreversible and progressive brain disease. In this paper, we utilized diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to detect abnormal topological organization of white matter (WM) structural networks. We compared the differences between WM connectivity characteristics at global, regional, and local levels in 26 patients with probable AD and 16 normal control (NC) elderly subjects, using connectivity networks constructed with the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model and the high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) model, respectively. At the global level, we found that the WM structural networks of both AD and NC groups had a small-world topology; however, the AD group showed a significant decrease in both global and local efficiency, but an increase in clustering coefficient and the average shortest path length. We further found that the AD patients had significantly decreased nodal efficiency at the regional level, as well as weaker connections in multiple local cortical and subcortical regions, such as precuneus, temporal lobe, hippocampus, and thalamus. The HARDI model was found to be more advantageous than the DTI model, as it was more sensitive to the deficiencies in AD at all of the three levels.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962808677&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1155/2016/2947136
DO - 10.1155/2016/2947136
M3 - Article
C2 - 26881100
AN - SCOPUS:84962808677
SN - 2090-5904
VL - 2016
JO - Neural Plasticity
JF - Neural Plasticity
M1 - 2947136
ER -