Neurometabolic characteristics in the anterior cingulate gyrus of Alzheimer's disease patients with depression: a H-1 magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

作者：Guo, Zhongwei; Zhang, Jiangtao; Liu, Xiaozheng; Hou, Hongtao; Cao, Yulin; Wei, Fuquan; Li, Japeng; Chen, Xingli; Shen, Yuedi; Chen, Wei^*

来源：BMC Psychiatry, 2015, 15(1): 306.

DOI：10.1186/s12888-015-0691-7

• Alzheimer's disease
• Depression
• Magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• Anterior cingulate gyrus

Background: Depression is a common comorbid psychiatric symptom in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the prevalence of depression is higher among people with AD compared with healthy older adults. Comorbid depression in AD may increase the risk of cognitive decline, impair patients' function, and reduce their quality of life. However, the mechanisms of depression in AD remain unclear. Here, our aim was to identify neurometabolic characteristics in the brain that are associated with depression in patients with mild AD.
Methods: Thirty-seven patients were evaluated using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), and divided into two groups: 17 AD patients with depression (D-AD) and 20 non-depressed AD patients (nD-AD). Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we characterized neurometabolites in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) of D-AD and nD-AD patients.
Results: Compared with nD-AD patients, D-AD patients showed lower N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA/Cr) and higher myo-inositol/creatine (mI/Cr) in the left ACG. NPI score correlated with NAA/Cr and mI/Cr in the left ACG, while HAMD correlated with NAA/Cr.
Conclusions: Our findings show neurometabolic alterations in D-AD patients. Thus, D-AD pathogenesis may be attributed to abnormal activity of neurons and glial cells in the left ACG.

• 出版日期2015-12-2
• 单位杭州师范大学; 上海市精神卫生中心; 浙江大学