基于体素的形态测量学在阿尔茨海默病及轻度认知功能障碍研究中的应用

Voxel-based Morphometry's Application in Studies of Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognition lmpairment

阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer's disease,AD)是发生于老年和老年前期、以进行性认知功能障碍和行为异常为特征的中枢神经系统退行性疾病,是老年痴呆中最常见类型。轻度认知功能障碍(mild cognitive impairment,MCI)是介于正常衰老和痴呆之间的一种中间状态,指有轻度的记忆或认知损伤,但尚未达到痴呆程度的一种状态,日常生活和社会功能不受影响,其中很大一部分患者最终进展为AD。临床诊断AD患者多已达中晚期,为了能早期诊断AD及预测MCI的转归,有关AD的生物学标注物的研究成为近年来的科研热点。AD患者颅脑的大体病理特征为脑萎缩,其萎缩有别于正常老龄化所致的退行性改变,有其自身特点,这种特定形式的萎缩有可能成为AD早期诊断的生物学标志物。基于体素的形态测量学(voxel-based morphometry,VBM)是一种基于像素水平对脑核磁图像进行自动、全面、客观分析的技术,可以定量分析全脑结构、刻画出局部脑区结构特征,是一种较好的脑形态分析工具,广泛用于阿尔茨海默病及轻度认知功能障碍的研究中,本文综述了近年来其研究进展,期望为临床及科研提供参考。

Alzheimer＇s disease（AD） is the most frequent cause of dementia in the general population. It is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder occurring in or pre geratic period with cognitive impairment and abnormal behavior as its main manifestations. Mild cognitive impairment（MCI） is the intermediate stage between the cognitive changes of normal aging and dementia. The cognitive loss in MCI patients can＇t satisfy the criteria of dementia and many of them transferred to AD patients. As most of the clinical diagnosed AD patients are in middle to late stages, the biomarker for early diagnosis became the hot point of research in recent years. The specific atrophy pattern of brain may be one of the biomarkers. Voxel-based morphometry（VBM） is a voxel-based method that allows automatical hypothesis-free comparisons of regional brain indices across the whole brain. Recent morphometric MRI studies have investigated brain volume abnormalities of AD and mild cognitive impairment using VBM. This article reviews these findings in order to provide cues for clinical practice and scientific research.