Background: Structural neuroimaging studies of white matter volume (WMV) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) have yielded variable findings.
Methods: A systematic review of VBM studies of WMV of patients with AD and healthy control (HC) subjects indexed in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and EMBASE from 1990 to June 2011 was conducted. Coordinates were extracted from clusters with significant difference in WMV between patients with AD and HC subjects. Meta-analysis was performed using Effect Size Signed Differential Mapping (ES-SDM).
Results: Eight studies were enrolled, which included 227 patients with AD and 215 HC subjects. WMV reduction at 69 coordinates in AD and no WMV increase were found in the current meta-analysis. Significant reductions were observed in the left parahippocampal gyrus extending to the temporal white matter, the right temporal white matter extending to the parahippocampal gyrus and the posterior corpus callosum. The findings remain largely unchanged in the jackknife sensitivity analyses.
Conclusions: White matter atrophy was clearly identified in AD, mainly in bilateral structures close to memory formations such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex.
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