Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 19 pp 19083—19094

Clinical features and brain structural changes in magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer’s disease patients with apathy

Shu-Yang Yu1,8, *, , Wan-Lin Zhu2,8, *, , Peng Guo1, , Shao-Wu Li3, , Ya-Ou Liu4, , Teng-Hong Lian1, , Du-Yu Ding1, , Dan-Ning Li1, , Li-Xia Li5, , Li Liu5, , Hui Zhao5, , Li-Jun Zuo1, , Yang Hu1, , Qiu-Jin Yu1, , Zhao Jin1, , Rui-Dan Wang1, , Jun-Hua Gao1, , Rong-Yan Zhu1, , Xiao-Min Wang6, , Wei Zhang7,8,9,10, ,

  • 1 Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
  • 2 China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Disease, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
  • 3 Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Beijing 100070, China
  • 4 Department of Radiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
  • 5 Department of General Internal Medicine, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
  • 6 Department of Physiology, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
  • 7 Center for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
  • 8 China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Disease, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China;
  • 9 Center of Parkinson's Disease, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing 100053, China
  • 10 Beijing Key Laboratory on Parkinson's Disease, Beijing 100053, China
* Co-first authors

Received: February 5, 2020       Accepted: July 6, 2020       Published: October 11, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103705
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2020 Yu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Apathy is common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. However, its relation with other clinical symptoms in AD and brain structural changes in magnetic resonance imaging is unclear.

Results: Compared with AD with no apathy group, cognitive function and activities of daily living were significantly impaired and neuropsychiatric symptoms were obviously presented in AD with apathy group (P<0.05). The frequency of Apolipoprotein E genotypes was not significantly different (P>0.05). Correlation analyses and multiple linear analyses revealed that thickness of left temporal pole and volume of posterior corpus callosum were significantly and negatively correlated with Modified Apathy Estimation Scale score in AD patients (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Apathy with AD is positively correlated with cognitive impairment, neuropsychiatric symptoms and poor activities of daily living. Atrophy of left temporal pole and posterior corpus callosum presented by MRI is positively related with apathy of AD.

Methods: In this study, 137 AD patients were recruited and divided into AD with apathy group and AD with no apathy group according to Modified Apathy Estimation Scale score. We evaluated patients’ cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living, detected the frequency of Apolipoprotein E genotypes and measured cortical thickness and volume by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Abbreviations

AD: Alzheimer’s disease; AD-A: AD with apathy; AD-NA: AD with no apathy; MAES: Modified Apathy Estimation Scale; ApoE: Apolipoprotein E; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; NPI: Neuropsychiatric Inventory; MCI: Mild cognitive impairment; MMSE: Mini-Mental State Examination; ADL: Activities of daily living; NPSs: Neuropsychiatric symptoms; ACC: Anterior cingulate; OFC: Orbitofrontal cortex; DTI: Diffusion tensor imaging; FA: Fractional anisotropy; BDNF: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor.