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Micro-structural white matter abnormalities in type 2 diabetic patients: a DTI study using TBSS analysis

  • Functional Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have usually been found cognitive impairment associated with brain white matter (WM) abnormalities. However, findings have varied across studies, and any potential relationship with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the whole-brain WM integrity of T2DM patients and to compare our findings with those of published AD cases.

Methods

In this study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) combined with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to investigate whole-brain WM abnormalities in 48 T2DM patients and 48 healthy controls. The effects of age and gender were also evaluated.

Results

In our study, significantly decreasing FA and increasing MD and DA values (P<0.05) were found in some WM regions closely related to the default mode network (DMN), including cingulum, the right frontal lobe involving the right uncinate fasciculus (UF), bilateral parietal lobes involving the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) involving the UF and the ILF. We also found abnormalities in the thalamus involving the fornix (FX), anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), and posterior thalamic radiation (PTR). The damaged regions above are similar to those found in patients with AD, as reported in previous studies.

Conclusion

The present study not only provides useful information about the WM regions and tracts affected by T2DM but also offers insight into the underlying neuropathological process in T2DM patients and the relationship between T2DM and AD.

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Abbreviations

T2DM:

Type 2 diabetes mellitus

AD:

Alzheimer’s disease

WM:

White matter

DTI:

Diffusion tensor imaging

TBSS:

Tract-based spatial statistics

DMN:

Default mode network

MTG:

Middle temporal gyrus

UF:

Uncinate fasciculus

SLF:

Superior longitudinal fasciculus

ILF:

Inferior longitudinal fasciculus

FX:

Fornix

ATR:

Anterior thalamic radiation

PTR:

Posterior thalamic radiation

FA:

Fractional anisotropy

MD:

Mean diffusivity

DA:

Axial diffusivity

RD:

Radial diffusivity

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Acknowledgments

The authors give special thanks to Peng Fang, College of Mechatronics and Automation, National University of Defense Technology, Hunan, China, for TBSS data analyzing. This study has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271389, 81471251).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Imaging Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, No.16 Jichang Road, Guangdong, China

    Xin Tan, Jie An, Huan Lin, Yi Liang, Wen Shen, Xi Leng, Chi Zhang, Yanting Zheng & Shijun Qiu

  2. College of Mechatronics and Automation, National University of Defense Technology, Hunan, China

    Peng Fang

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  1. Xin Tan
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Correspondence to Shijun Qiu.

Ethics declarations

We declare that all human studies have been approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong, China, and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that the ethics committee waived informed patient consent.

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We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Tan, X., Fang, P., An, J. et al. Micro-structural white matter abnormalities in type 2 diabetic patients: a DTI study using TBSS analysis. Neuroradiology 58, 1209–1216 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1752-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1752-4

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