Uncinate fasciculus‐correlated cognition in Alzheimer's disease: a diffusion tensor imaging study by tractography

Background:  Neuroimaging studies show increased diffusivity and decreased anisotropy in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Previous reports have analyzed a correlation with cognitive function and DTI parameters, but their results are inconsistent. A reason for this might be a region of interest (ROI) method, used to calculate parameters for DTI, because this method has various usages of how to place a ROI and includes summations of values for various neuronal fiber tracts, resulting in contamination of unintended fibers. To improve the instability with ROI placement, a tractography‐based method might be useful. Our coworker reported decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of uncinate fasciculus (UF) in patients with AD by tractography. To confirm whether DTI parameter values are related to severity of cognitive function in patients with AD, we measured mean diffusion anisotropy and diffusivity of coregistered voxels along the tracking lines (i.e. tract of interest) of UF.

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