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Cerebellar Atrophy in Patients with Subcortical-Type Vascular Cognitive Impairment

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Abstract

Recent studies suggest that the role of the cerebellum extends into cognitive regulation and that subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD) can result in cerebellar atrophy. However, there has been no evaluation of the cerebellar volume in the preclinical stage of SVaD. We aimed to compare cerebellar volume among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment (svMCI) and evaluate which factors could have contributed to the cerebellar volume. Participants were composed of 355 patients with aMCI, svMCI, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and SVaD. Cerebellar volumes were measured using automated methods. A direct comparison of the cerebellar volume in SVaD and AD groups showed that the SVaD group had a statistically smaller cerebellar volume than the AD group. Additionally, the svMCI group had a smaller cerebellar volume than the aMCI group, with the number of lacunes (especially in the supratentorial regions) being associated with cerebellar volume. Cerebellar volumes were associated with some neuropsychological tests, digit span backward and ideomotor apraxia. These findings suggest that cerebellar atrophy may be useful in differentiating subtypes of dementia and the cerebellum plays a potential role in cognition.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the Korean Healthcare Technology R&D Project; Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (A102065 & A070001); a Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) NRL program grant funded by the Korean government (MEST; R0A-2007-000-20068-0); and a Samsung Medical Center Clinical Research Development Program grant (CRL-108011 & CRS 110-14-1).

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest, and all protocols described in this study were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Samsung Medical Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-710, South Korea

    Cindy W. Yoon, Sang Won Seo, Mee Kyung Suh, Geon Ha Kim, Ji Soo Shin, Chi Hun Kim, Young Noh, Hanna Cho & Duk L. Na

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea

    Jun-Sung Park, Ki-Chang Kwak & Jong-Min Lee

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, South Korea

    Uicheul Yoon

  4. Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

    Min-Jeong Kim

  5. Department of Neurology, National Health Insurance Corporation Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, South Korea

    Jong Hun Kim

  6. Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Jee Hoon Roh

Authors
  1. Cindy W. Yoon
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  2. Sang Won Seo
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  3. Jun-Sung Park
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  5. Uicheul Yoon
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  6. Mee Kyung Suh
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  7. Geon Ha Kim
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  8. Ji Soo Shin
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  9. Chi Hun Kim
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  10. Young Noh
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  11. Hanna Cho
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  12. Min-Jeong Kim
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  13. Jong Hun Kim
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  14. Jee Hoon Roh
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  15. Jong-Min Lee
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  16. Duk L. Na
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sang Won Seo.

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Yoon, C.W., Seo, S.W., Park, JS. et al. Cerebellar Atrophy in Patients with Subcortical-Type Vascular Cognitive Impairment. Cerebellum 12, 35–42 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-012-0388-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-012-0388-0

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