Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and executive dysfunction. A case-control study on the significance of frontal white matter changes detected by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

Sjöbeck, Martin LU ; Elfgren, Christina LU orcid ; Larsson, Elna-Marie LU ; Brockstedt, Sara LU ; Lätt, Jimmy LU ; Englund, Elisabet LU orcid and Passant, Ulla LU (2010) In Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 50. p.260-266
Abstract
White matter (WM) changes are frequently seen on structural imaging in AD but the clinical relevance of these changes is uncertain. Frontal WM pathology is often observed upon neuropathological examination in AD. Since frontal cortical/sub-cortical pathology is known to relate to executive dysfunction, the aim was to elucidate if frontal WM changes in AD correlated with executive dysfunction. In all, 15 AD patients and 15 age-matched control cases were investigated in the study, which covered conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), DTI, neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological examinations. Reduced performance on neuropsychological testing of executive function correlated significantly with an increasing degree of frontal WM changes... (More)
White matter (WM) changes are frequently seen on structural imaging in AD but the clinical relevance of these changes is uncertain. Frontal WM pathology is often observed upon neuropathological examination in AD. Since frontal cortical/sub-cortical pathology is known to relate to executive dysfunction, the aim was to elucidate if frontal WM changes in AD correlated with executive dysfunction. In all, 15 AD patients and 15 age-matched control cases were investigated in the study, which covered conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), DTI, neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological examinations. Reduced performance on neuropsychological testing of executive function correlated significantly with an increasing degree of frontal WM changes detected by DTI in the AD group, while no such correlation was observed for the controls. Conventional semi-quantitative MRI assessment did not correlate with results on neuropsychological testing of executive function in any of the groups. The structural correlate to certain dimensions of executive dysfunction in AD patients could be related to changes in the deep frontal WM. DTI appears to be more sensitive in the detection of clinically significant WM alterations than conventional semi-quantitative MRI. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
volume
50
pages
260 - 266
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000276454900004
  • pmid:19419776
  • scopus:77649178915
ISSN
1872-6976
DOI
10.1016/j.archger.2009.03.014
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Department of Psychology (012010000), Pathology, (Lund) (013030000), Radiation Physics, Lund (013034000), Diagnostic Radiology, (Lund) (013038000), Department of Psychogeriatrics (013304000)
id
96fc7a63-47d5-46f8-acdc-f5dec94cef29 (old id 1412630)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19419776?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:08:55
date last changed
2022-01-29 08:28:15
@article{96fc7a63-47d5-46f8-acdc-f5dec94cef29,
  abstract     = {{White matter (WM) changes are frequently seen on structural imaging in AD but the clinical relevance of these changes is uncertain. Frontal WM pathology is often observed upon neuropathological examination in AD. Since frontal cortical/sub-cortical pathology is known to relate to executive dysfunction, the aim was to elucidate if frontal WM changes in AD correlated with executive dysfunction. In all, 15 AD patients and 15 age-matched control cases were investigated in the study, which covered conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), DTI, neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological examinations. Reduced performance on neuropsychological testing of executive function correlated significantly with an increasing degree of frontal WM changes detected by DTI in the AD group, while no such correlation was observed for the controls. Conventional semi-quantitative MRI assessment did not correlate with results on neuropsychological testing of executive function in any of the groups. The structural correlate to certain dimensions of executive dysfunction in AD patients could be related to changes in the deep frontal WM. DTI appears to be more sensitive in the detection of clinically significant WM alterations than conventional semi-quantitative MRI.}},
  author       = {{Sjöbeck, Martin and Elfgren, Christina and Larsson, Elna-Marie and Brockstedt, Sara and Lätt, Jimmy and Englund, Elisabet and Passant, Ulla}},
  issn         = {{1872-6976}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{260--266}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics}},
  title        = {{Alzheimer's disease (AD) and executive dysfunction. A case-control study on the significance of frontal white matter changes detected by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2009.03.014}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.archger.2009.03.014}},
  volume       = {{50}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}