Brain Qualitative and Quantitative Radiological Biomarker Association with Cognitive Impairment and Dementia. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Demographic changes in the population and timely diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases are among the major challenges in Europe and the world in the 21st century. Within the framework of the dissertation, the possibilities of magnetic resonance (MR) examination are explored in analysing study participants with cognitive impairments. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between qualitative and quantitative brain biomarkers and cognitive function in patients with cognitive impairments. The literature review section of the study examines the concept of cognitive impairment and dementia, commonly used cognitive tests, describes commonly used qualitative visual assessment scales, and evaluates the use of quantitative biomarkers in the diagnosis of cognitive impairments. The material section evaluates demographic indicators of participants, divides participants into groups, and evaluates differences between participant groups. In total, 81 participants were analysed, of which 24 had no cognitive impairment and 57 had various degrees of cognitive impairments assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale. The methods section evaluates the application of statistical methods, including the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, post-hoc analysis, p-value correction after Bonferroni, Spearman correlation, principal component analysis. Results indicate that certain brain radiological biomarkers are associated with cognitive function outcomes, including both qualitative assessment scales and quantitative volume, cortical thickness, and white-matter fibre characteristic values. These identified relationships serve as the basis for further research on the use of quantitative radiological biomarkers in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment and to identify patients in the future who are at higher risk. In conclusion, the hypotheses that were defined during the work are confirmed – in the case of cognitive impairment and dementia, structural changes occur in the brain, which can be detected in MR images by performing a qualitative and quantitative analysis of brain structures, and cognitive impairment is associated with specific changes in the quantitative measures of the brain MR. Overall, MR examination can not only rule out large pathologies but also provide more extensive and detailed information on anatomical and structural changes in the brain that are essential for the diagnosis, control, and evaluation of interventions for cognitive impairment in the long term.