The Investigation of Fluoro-deoxy-glucose PET in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Statistical Parametric Mapping

Aim Voxel-based analysis of the regional cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with Alzheimer's disease(AD) and amnestic-type mild cognitive impairment(aMCI) was compared with the normal aging associated with characteristic and progressive reductions by fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography(18F-FDG PET).Methods 27 subjects with mild AD patients,10 aMCI subjects and 21 age-matched normal aging were enrolled.Glucose metabolism differences of brain were assessed by Statistical Parametric Mapping 8(SPM8) based on the Matlab platform,and compared with the normal aging by using t test.Results Compared with the normal aging group,the AD group had significantly lower brain glucose metabolism in posterior cingulate(BA23,31),precuneus(BA19),bilateral parietal(BA40),bilateral temporal lobe(BA20,21,22,37) and bilateral frontal cortex(BA6,9,10)(P0.001,uncorrected,K≥50 voxels).Compared with the aMCI group,the AD group had hypometabolism in posterior cingulate(BA23,31),precuneus(BA19),temporal lobe(BA40,20,21,22,39) and frontal cortex(BA6,8,9)(P0.001,uncorrected,K≥50 voxels).Decreased voxels of glucose metabolism between the AD group and the aMCI group(12 413 voxels) were less than those between the AD group and the normal aging group(17 592 voxels).Compared with the normal aging group,brain glucose metabolism in aMCI group decreased only in the right occipital cortex(BA17)(P0.05,uncorrected).Conclusion Voxel-wise comparison of glucose metabolism in whole brain between the patients and the normal aging can reveal widespread hypometabolism in mild AD.