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Morphologic and neuropsychological patterns in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

We conducted a retrospective study to identify morphological subgroups of patients referred for AD or aMCI and to seek for differences across neuropsychological performances.

Methods

One hundred forty-five patients (mean age = 76.01, 88 women and 57 men) referred for AD, either at the stage of dementia or aMCI, were examined using structural MRI. Five observers reviewed blindly twice all examinations. We rated microangiopathy, hippocampal, parietal atrophies, including a gradient of fronto-parietal atrophy (GFPA). A multiple component analysis (MCA) followed by a hierarchical ascending classification was conducted to identify morphologically distinct subgroups. Among these, 76 patients completed all the neuropsychological tests. Univariate and multivariate analyses were further conducted on these data across morphological subgroups. The institutional review board approved the research protocol.

Results

Inter- and intra-raters’ agreements were excellent and very good for microangiopathy and hippocampal atrophy ratings. They were higher for GFPA than for the parietal atrophy scale.

MCA without priors identified three groups: group 1 was characterized by no/discrete microangiopathy, severe hippocampal, and predominant parietal atrophy; group 2 had significant microangiopathy, severe hippocampal atrophy, and no predominant parietal atrophy; group 3 had a mild hippocampal atrophy and parietal atrophies. In group 1, working memory profile was less impaired than in group 2 (p = 0.01). Neuropsychological performances of group 3 were higher in most domains.

Conclusion

Combined characterization of microangiopathy, hippocampal, parietal, and GFPA allows identifying morphological subgroups among patients referred for AD and at risk. These groups have some neuropsychological differences, suggesting different pathophysiological mechanisms or co-existing conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroradiology and MRI, University Hospital of Grenoble, CS 10217, 38043 cedex 9, Grenoble, France

    Pierre Chapuis, Eldda Banciu & Alexandre Krainik

  2. Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Grenoble, Grenoble, France

    Mathilde Sauvée, Amélie Serra & Olivier Moreaud

  3. CIT803, University Hospital of Grenoble, Grenoble, France

    Maud Medici & Alexandre Moreau-Gaudry

  4. Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France

    Alexandre Moreau-Gaudry

  5. INSERM U 836, Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, Grenoble, France

    Alexandre Krainik

Authors
  1. Pierre Chapuis
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  2. Mathilde Sauvée
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  3. Maud Medici
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  4. Amélie Serra
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  6. Alexandre Moreau-Gaudry
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandre Krainik.

Ethics declarations

We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the CECIC Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (IRB 5891), and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Chapuis, P., Sauvée, M., Medici, M. et al. Morphologic and neuropsychological patterns in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Neuroradiology 58, 459–466 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1659-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1659-0

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