Reduced Thickness of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex as a Predictor of Amnestic-Mild Cognitive Impairment Conversion to Alzheimer’s Disease with Psychosis
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online December 7, 2021
Reduced Thickness of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex as a Predictor of Amnestic-Mild Cognitive Impairment Conversion to Alzheimer’s Disease with Psychosis
A long-term follow-up study in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is needed to elucidate the association between regional brain volume and psychopathological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease with psychosis (AD + P).
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the thickness of the angular cingulate cortex (ACC) on the risk of AD + P conversion in patients with aMCI.
Methods:
This was a hospital-based prospective longitudinal study including 174 patients with aMCI. The main outcome measure was time-to-progression from aMCI to AD + P. Subregions of the ACC (rostral ACC, rACC; caudal ACC, cACC) and hippocampus (HC) were measured as regions of interest with magnetic resonance imaging and the Freesurfer analysis at baseline. Survival analysis with time to incident AD + P as an event variable was calculated with Cox proportional hazards models using the subregions of the ACC and HC as a continuous variable.
Results:
Cox proportional hazard analyses showed that the risk of AD + P was associated with sub-regional ACC thickness but not HC volume: reduced cortical thickness of the left cACC (HR [95%CI], 0.224 [0.087–0.575], p = 0.002), right cACC (HR [95%CI], 0.318 [0.132–0.768], p = 0.011). This association of the cACC with the risk of AD also remained significant when adjusted for HC volume.
Conclusion:
We found that reduced cortical thickness of the cACC is a predictor of aMCI conversion to AD + P, independent of HC, suggesting that the ACC plays a vital role in the underlying pathogenesis of AD + P.
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