White matter hyperintensity longitudinal morphometric analysis in association with Alzheimer disease
Jeremy F. Strain, Chia‐Ling Phuah, Babatunde Adeyemo, Kathleen Cheng, Kyle Womack, John E. McCarthy, Manu S. Goyal, Yasheng Chen, Aristeidis Sotiras, Hongyu An, Chengjie Xiong, Andrea Scharf, Catherine Newsom‐Stewart, John Carl Morris, Tammie Lee Smith Benzinger, Jin‐Moo Lee, Beau M. Ances, for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Vascular damage in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has shown conflicting findings particularly when analyzing longitudinal data. We introduce white matter hyperintensity (WMH) longitudinal morphometric analysis (WLMA) that quantifies WMH expansion as the distance from lesion voxels to a region of interest boundary. METHODS: WMH segmentation maps were derived from 270 longitudinal fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) ADNI images. WLMA was performed on five data-driven WMH patterns with distinct spatial distributions. Amyloid accumulation was evaluated with WMH expansion across the five WMH patterns. RESULTS: The preclinical group had significantly greater expansion in the posterior ventricular WM compared to controls. Amyloid significantly associated with frontal WMH expansion primarily within AD individuals. WLMA outperformed WMH volume changes for classifying AD from controls primarily in periventricular and posterior WMH. DISCUSSION: These data support the concept that localized WMH expansion continues to proliferate with amyloid accumulation throughout the entirety of the disease in distinct spatial locations.