Investig Magn Reson Imaging.  2023 Jun;27(2):84-92. 10.13104/imri.2023.0002.

Relationship Between Cortical Iron and Diabetes Mellitus in Older Adults With Cognitive Complaints: A Quantitative Susceptibility Map Study

• Yang J
• Lee S
• Moon Y
• Lee J
• Moon WJ

• KMID: 2543013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.13104/imri.2023.0002

Abstract

Purpose
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is implicated in the pathogenesis of iron dysregulation and Alzheimer’s disease. We aimed to evaluate whether the presence of DM and status of cognitive impairment affect cortical iron accumulation in older adults, as quantified by the susceptibility measurements using the deep neural network QSMnet+.
Materials and Methods
In this retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort, 50 patients with normal cognition with or without subjective memory impairment (controls), 49 with early mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 43 with late MCI were evaluated. We employed QSMnet+ to compute a quantitative susceptibility map and FreeSurfer 6.0 to obtain anatomical labels. The effects of MCI and DM on cortical susceptibility and volume were evaluated using a two-way analysis of covariance.
Results
Whole-cortex susceptibility differed according to MCI (p < 0.001) but not according to DM (p = 0.554), with higher values in the early and late MCI groups than in the control group. MCI and the DM status showed a significant interaction in the whole cortex (p = 0.023). Among the patients with early MCI, those with DM exhibited higher cortical susceptibility than those without DM, whereas those with late MCI showed no such difference. Cortical susceptibility did not correlate with the cortical volume in patients with DM and inversely correlated with the cortical volume in patients without DM. Only disease status (p = 0.008) and DM (p = 0.023) were independent predictors of whole-cortex susceptibility, after correcting for covariates.
Conclusion
Our findings demonstrated that cognitive impairment and DM are linked to alterations in cortical susceptibility in older adults. This observation suggests that cortical iron accumulation results from the combined effects of DM and neurodegenerative processes related to the cognitive status.

Keyword

Mild cognitive impairment; Diabetes mellitus; Iron; Cerebral cortex; Magnetic resonance imaging