Magnetic resonance image-based brain age as a discriminator of dementia conversion in patients with amyloid-negative amnestic mild cognitive impairment

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 22467
• Main Authors: Kim, Hye Weon, Kim, Hyung-Ji, Lee, Hyunji, Yang, Hyeonsik, Rieu, ZunHyan, Lee, Jae-Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18.12.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/617/375/132/1283; 692/617/375/364; Age; Alzheimer Disease - pathology; Amyloid; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - pathology; Cognitive ability; Cognitive Dysfunction - pathology; Dementia; Dementia - diagnostic imaging; Dementia - pathology; Dementia disorders; Disease Progression; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; multidisciplinary; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Positron emission tomography; Retrospective Studies; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Survival; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49465-8

Patients with amyloid-negative amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have a conversion rate of approximately 10% to dementia within 2 years. We aimed to investigate whether brain age is an important factor in predicting conversion to dementia in patients with amyloid-negative amnestic MCI. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with amyloid-negative amnestic MCI. All participants underwent detailed neuropsychological evaluation, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and [18F]-florbetaben positron emission tomography. Brain age was determined by the volumetric assessment of 12 distinct brain regions using an automatic segmentation software. During the follow-up period, 38% of the patients converted from amnestic MCI to dementia. Further, 73% of patients had a brain age greater than their actual chronological age. When defining ‘survival' as the non-conversion of MCI to dementia, these groups differed significantly in survival probability (p = 0.036). The low-educated female group with a brain age greater than their actual age had the lowest survival rate among all groups. Our findings suggest that the MRI-based brain age used in this study can contribute to predicting conversion to dementia in patients with amyloid-negative amnestic MCI.