DTI study of white matter fiber integrity and the association with cognitive impairment after subcortical infarction

Abstract

Objective To study the relationship between white matter fiber integrity and cognitive impairment after subcortical infarction, and to explore the possible mechanism with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods Total of 37 subcortical infarction patients with cognitive impairment were recruitded from March 2016 to December 2018. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to evaluate the cognitive function. DTI was performed to obtain the fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter fiber in the whole brain. The correlation between FA values and MoCA scores was analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis and partial correlation analysis and then the multiple linear regression model was established. Results Correlation analysis showed that decreased FA values in the bilateral external capsule, cingulate gyrus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior fronto⁃occipital fasciculus (IFOF), fasciculus，anterior limb of internal capsule, anterior and superior corona radiata were significantly correlated with MoCA scores (P < 0.05, for all). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that MoCA scores affected the SLF (P=0.042) and IFOF (P=0.006). Conclusions Impaired white matter filber integrity of the ipsilesional SLF and IFOF can be imaging biomarkers for cognitive impairment after subcortical infarction.

Keywords

• stroke
• brain ischemia
• cerebral cortex
• cognition disorders
• white matter
• magnetic resonance imaging