Free-water imaging reveals unique brain microstructural deficits in hispanic individuals with Dementia

Prior evidence suggests that Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals differ in potential risk factors for the development of dementia. Here we determine whether specific brain regions are associated with cognitive performance for either ethnicity along various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. For this cross-sectional study, we examined 108 participants (61 Hispanic vs. 47 Non-Hispanic individuals) from the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (1Florida ADRC), who were evaluated at baseline with diffusion-weighted and T1-weighted imaging, and positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid imaging. We used FreeSurfer to segment 34 cortical regions of interest. Baseline Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were used as measures of cognitive performance. Group analyses assessed free-water measures (FW) and volume. Statistically significant FW regions based on ethnicity x group interactions were used in a stepwise regression function to predict total MMSE and MoCA scores. Random forest models were used to identify the most predictive brain-based measures of a dementia diagnosis separately for Hispanic and non-Hispanic groups. Results indicated elevated FW values for the left inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left banks of the superior temporal sulcus, left supramarginal gyrus, right amygdala, and right entorhinal cortex in Hispanic AD subjects compared to non-Hispanic AD subjects. These alterations occurred in the absence of different volumes of these regions in the two AD groups. FW may be useful in detecting individual differences potentially reflective of varying etiology that can influence cognitive decline and identify MRI predictors of cognitive performance, particularly among Hispanics.