Longitudinal assessment of global and regional rate of grey matter atrophy in 1,172 healthy older adults: modulation by sex and age.

Fabrice Crivello, Nathalie Tzourio-Mazoyer, Christophe Tzourio, Bernard Mazoyer
PLoS ONE. 2014-12-03; 9(12): e114478
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114478

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1. PLoS One. 2014 Dec 3;9(12):e114478. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114478.
eCollection 2014.

Longitudinal assessment of global and regional rate of grey matter atrophy in
1,172 healthy older adults: modulation by sex and age.

Crivello F(1), Tzourio-Mazoyer N(1), Tzourio C(2), Mazoyer B(1).

Author information:
(1)Université de Bordeaux, GIN, UMR 5296, Bordeaux, France; CNRS, GIN, UMR 5296,
Bordeaux, France; CEA, GIN, UMR 5296, Bordeaux, France.
(2)INSERM, U708, Victor Segalen University, Bordeaux, France.

To characterize the neuroanatomical changes in healthy older adults is important
to differentiate pathological from normal brain structural aging. The present
study investigated the annualized rate of GM atrophy in a large sample of older
participants, focusing on the hippocampus, and searching for modulation by age
and sex. In this 4-year longitudinal community cohort study, we used a VBM
analysis to estimate the annualized rate of GM loss, at both the global and
regional levels, in 1,172 healthy older adults (65-82 years) scanned at 1.5T. The
global annualized rate of GM was -4.0 cm3/year (-0.83%/year). The highest rates
of regional GM loss were found in the frontal and parietal cortices, middle
occipital gyri, temporal cortex and hippocampus. The rate of GM atrophy was
higher in women (-4.7 cm3/year, -0.91%/year) than men (-3.3 cm3/year,
-0.65%/year). The global annualized rate of GM atrophy remained constant
throughout the age range of the cohort, in both sexes. This pattern was
replicated at the regional level, with the exception of the hippocampi, which
showed a rate of GM atrophy that accelerated with age (2.8%/year per year of age)
similarly for men and women. The present study reports a global and regional
description of the annualized rate of grey matter loss and its evolution after
the age of 65. Our results suggest greater anatomical vulnerability of women in
late life and highlight a specific vulnerability of the hippocampus to the aging
processes after 65 years of age.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114478
PMCID: PMC4255026
PMID: 25469789 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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