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GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ATROPHY PATTERNS AMONG AD AND AMCI PATIENTS.

Posted by Annapaola Prestia Laboratory of Epidemiology Neuroimaging and Telemedicine, IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio FBF, The National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer’s and Mental Diseases, Brescia, Italy. March 21st, 2011

Recently, researchers interested in sex differences among patients with AD and aMCI have turned their attention to the brain, investigating sex dimorphism in brain structure as well as in brain function by utilizing imaging technologies such as MRI, positron emission tomography (PET), to underline physiological, and pathological changes in the brain. The primary purpose of this study was to assess whether and how atrophy in specific regions of grey matter is associated with sex for aMCI, AD and control subjects. Using a voxel-wise analysis and cluster-level inference, the longitudinal analyses revealed that, of the various grey matter regions investigated, males and females in the AD and in the aMCI group showed different patterns of decline over time compared to controls in the bilateral precuneus, bilateral caudate nucleus, right entorhinal gyrus, bilateral thalamus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left insula, and right amygdala. Thus, sex differences among AD and aMCI patients should be considered in determining how groups differ from each other in structural atrophy.