Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Of Cognitive Dysfunction In Patients With Alcohol Dependence

BackgroundAlcohol has a neurotoxic effect on the brain,a large number of long-term consumption will produce structural and functional changes in central nervous system.The correlation between brain structure and neuropsychological assessment in patients with alcohol dependence illustrates the functional consequences of their pathological changes.The white matter in the human brain constitute by nerve fiber aggregation.Participating in activities,attention,memory,visual space functions of the brain,and the brain white matter integrity of the connection structure is the foundation for maintaining normal cognitive function.Some recently studies have showed that cerebral white matter integrity and relate cognitive foundation damage in patients with alcohol dependence,and after long term of abstinence,the white matter microstructure and cognitive function were partly improved.It can be seen that there is a prominent relationship between alcohol induced white matter damage and cognitive function decline in patients with alcohol dependence,which is of great significance to further explore the clinical treatment and rehabilitation of alcohol dependence.ObjectiveThis study through the acquisition of alcohol dependent patients and healthy human brain damage and cognitive dysfunction related to radiological and psychological data,to analysis the difference of the cognitive function between the two groups in the genu of cerebral white matter fiber structure and variety,explore neural physiological mechanism of alcohol related brain injury,to further explore the correlation between the brain injury and the related cognitive dysfunction in patients with alcohol dependence,to provide theoretical basis for its clinical treatment.MethodsIn this study,33 male patients with alcohol dependence who stopped drinking alcoholic beverages for more than two weeks were selected as the research group,and 30 male health peoples as control group.The two groups were evaluated cognitive functions: Mini Mental Status Scale(MMSE),Trail Making Test-B(TMT-B),the connection test Digit Span Test(DST),Verbal Fluency Test(VFT)and the Hopki Verbal Learning Test revised(HVLT-R),resting state fMRI were scanned after cognitive evaluation,using FSL software under the platform of Matlab to analyze the DTI(diffusion tensor imaging,DTI)data of functional magnetic resonance imaging,The cognitive function scores and cognitive related brain regions of cerebral white matter fractional anisotropy(fraction anisotropy,FA),average diffusion coefficient(mean diffusivity,MD)were compared using two sample T test between two groups,and alcohol dependence group cognitive related brain regions of cerebral white matter damage index and cognitive function results were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis.Results1.A variety of cognitive function evaluation results: MMSE score(28.48 �1.42 vs 29.63�0.56),DST score(8.27�1.44vs10.53�1.11),VFT score(9.79 �2.42vs12.03�3.67)and HVLT-R score(21.30�3.60vs26.73�2.68)was significantly lower than those of the control group(P<0.05);TMT-B completion time(133.64� 28.68vs96.47�25.08)was significantly higher than that of the control group(P < 0.05).2.The analysis of the correlation between alcohol consumption characteristics and cognitive function showed that the time of alcohol addiction was negatively correlated with VFT score,and the frequency of alcohol abstinence was positively correlated with VFT score.3.FA value in White matter of corpus callosum of alcohol dependent group(0.5544�0.0385vs0.5807�0.0221)was significantly lower than that of the control group(P < 0.05);and compared with the control group,MD value in research group(111.2702� 10.9676vs114.4585 �8.6712)showed no significantly difference.FA value in White matter in left hippocampus of alcohol dependent group(0.4222�0.0544 vs 0.4613� 0.0606)was significantly lower than that of the control group(P < 0.05);MD value in research group(121.7346�8.9268vs114.9672�11.5639)was higher than control group(P < 0.05).FA value of White matter in left frontopontine of alcohol dependent group(0.4332�0.0379 vs 0.4453�0.0330)showed no significantly difference than control group;MD value in research group(122.4433�8.3532vs115.0217�9.4503)is higher than control group(P< 0.05).FA value of White matter in left frontal lobe of research group(0.4545�0.0396 vs 0.4658�0.0425)showed no significantly difference than control group;MD value in alcohol dependent group(121.9195�7.3466vs115.9363�11.0967)is higher than control group(P < 0.05).4.In alcohol dependence group,genu of corpus cerebral,left hippocampus,left frontopontine and frontal lobe white matter in FA value,MD value and alcohol consumption characteristics assessment results by Pearson correlation analysis,there is no significant correlation was found.5.Between the two group,genu of corpus cerebral,left hippocampus,left frontopontine and frontal lobe white matter in FA value,MD value and the number of cognitive function assessment results by Pearson correlation analysis,there is no significant correlation was found.Conclusions1.There were significant cognitive impairment in male alcohol dependence patients,which showed that the level of general cognitive function was decreased and the level of executive,attention,language and memory decreased.2.The longer alcohol dependent patients with alcohol addiction the more serious cognitive impairment they have?3.There are white matter injury in cognition related brain areas such as genu of Corpus callosum in patients of alcohol dependence.4.The correlation between the FA value?MD value of the white matter in the cognitive related brain regions and the cognitive evaluation performance in patients with alcohol dependence need to be further explored.