Volumetría encefálica en imágenes de tomografía computarizada en adultos con funciones cognitivas normales

Introduction

Advanced neuroimaging techniques allow exploratory analyzes of structural alterations that can be used as evaluations of changes related to age and sex for the early diagnosis of cognitive decline.

Objective

To determine the differences in brain volume in relation to age, sex and the score of the mini mental test for the diagnosis of cognitive impairment.

Patients and methods

An observational analytical study was developed in 320 subjects with normal neurocognitive functions and neuropsychiatric examination, aged between 30 and 79 years, who underwent single-slice computed tomography of the skull. A segmentation method was used based on the analysis of homogeneous textures and interpolation.

Results

The multivariate analysis of variance showed the differences in the volume of the brain between both sexes and its decrease with respect to age. However, when taking into account the age of the individual, none of the correlations between the brain volumes and the scores obtained in the mental examination were significant, which implies that the age determines the correlation between the mini mental status exam and the volumes.

Conclusions

A morphometric quantification method of brain volumetric was obtained, confirming that brain volume differs significantly with sex and age, related to normal cognitive functioning associated with aging.