Correlation Between Cerebral Atrophy and Texture Features in Alzheimer-type Dementia Brains: A 3-Year Follow-up MRI Study

Abstract

We assessed relationships between six texture features and changes in atrophy of the cerebral parenchyma, the hippocampus, and the parahippocampal gyrus in the Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD) brain to determine whether or not the features reflect cerebral atrophy in ATD patients. The subjects of this study were 10 ATD patients, and underwent an magnetic resonanse imaging test of the head annually for at least 3 consecutive years. They consisted of three men and seven women, with a mean age of 71.4 ± 6.7 years. The results of study, the mean run length nonuniformity (RLN), angular second moment (ASM), and contrast (CON) increased with time, whereas the mean gray level nonuniformity (GLN), run percentage (RPC), and entropy (ENT) decreased with time. There was a statistically significant correlation between brain-intracranial area ratio (BIR) and GLN (p = 0.039), between BIR and ASM (p = 0.011), and between BIR and ENT (p = 0.023) as well as between parahippocampal-intracranial area ratio and GLN (p = 0.049). These results indicate that the six texture features were shown to reflect gray matter atrophy associated with ATD and to change with the progress of the disease. Although the course of ATD can be followed up by measuring a hippocampal area or volume and determining a decrease in the area or volume, texture features should be a more effective instrument for identifying the progress of ATD.