Alterations in white matter volume and its correlation with neuropsychological scales in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a DARTEL-based voxel-based morphometry study

Background: Non-invasive imaging markers can be used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) in its early stages, but an optimized quantification analysis to measure the brain integrity has been less studied. Purpose: To evaluate white matter volume change and its correlation with neuropsychological scales in patients with AD using a diffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated lie algebra (DARTEL)-based voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Material and Methods: The 21 participants comprised 11 patients with AD and 10 age-matched healthy controls. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were processed by VBM analysis based on DARTEL algorithm. Results: The patients showed significant white matter volume reductions in the posterior limb of the internal capsule, cerebral peduncle of the midbrain, and parahippocampal gyrus compared to healthy controls. In correlation analysis, the parahippocampal volume was positively correlated with the Korean-mini mental state examination score in AD. Conclusion: This study provides an evidence for localized white matter volume deficits in conjunction with cognitive dysfunction in AD. These findings would be helpful to understand the neuroanatomical mechanisms in AD and to robust the diagnostic accuracy for AD.