Abstract：Objective: To study the metabolic alterations in left middle frontal gyrus of patients suffering from vascular dementia(VD) with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy(1H-MRS). Materials and Methods: A single voxsel 1H-MRS was performed in gray matter and subcortical white matter of left middle frontal gyrus in 14 VD patients and 18 healthy age-matched controls using stimulated echo acquisition mode. Results: The VD group showed significant reduction of NAA/Cr ratio(P＜0.05) both in regions of gray matter and subcortical white matter of middle frontal gyrus compared with control group. There was no significant differences of Cho/Cr ratio between VD group and control group(P＞0.05). The VD group showed a significant correlation between MMSE scores and NAA/Cr ratio, and showed no significant correlation between MMSE scores and Cho/Cr ratio. Conclusion: The reduction of NAA/Cr ratio in gray matter and subcortical white matter of middle frontal gyrus in VD patients could be the metabolic information which is helpful to the early qualitative diagnosis and differential diagnosis of VD.
2008, Vol. 19 
