Fitting Contralateral Neuroanatomical Asymmetry into the Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis †

Abstract

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Due to the progressive nature of the neurodegeneration associated with the disease, it is of clinical interest to achieve an early diagnosis of AD. In this study, we analyzed the viability of asymmetry-related measures as potential biomarkers to facilitate the early diagnosis of AD. These measures were obtained from MAPER-segmented MP-RAGE MRI studies available at the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database, and by analyzing these studies at the level of individual segmented regions. The temporal evolution of these measures was obtained and then analyzed by generating spline regression models. Data imputation was performed where missing information prevented the temporal analysis of each measure from being realized, using additional information provided by ADNI for each patient. The temporal evolution of these measures was compared to the evolution of other commonly used markers for the diagnosis of AD, such as cognitive function, concentrations of Phosphorylated-Tau, Amyloid-β, and structural MRI volumetry. The results of the regression models showed that asymmetry measures, in particular regions such as the parahippocampal gyrus, differentiated themselves temporally before most of the other evaluated biomarkers. Further studies are suggested to corroborate these results.