Association of Cerebral Ischemia With Corneal Nerve Loss and Brain Atrophy in MCI and Dementia

Georgios Ponirakis; Ahmed Elsotouhy; Hanadi Al Hamad; Surjith Vattoth; Ioannis N Petropoulos; Adnan Khan; Hoda Gad; Fatima Al-Khayat; Mani Chandran; Marwan Ramadan; Marwa Elorrabi; Masharig Gadelseed; Rhia Tosino; Priya V Gawhale; Maryam Alobaidi; Shafi Khan; Pravija Manikoth; Yasmin H M Abdelrahim; Noushad Thodi; Hamad Almuhannadi; Salma Al-Mohannadi; Fatema AlMarri; Murtaza Qazi; Ahmed Own; Ziyad R Mahfoud; Ashfaq Shuaib; Rayaz A Malik

doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.690896

Association of Cerebral Ischemia With Corneal Nerve Loss and Brain Atrophy in MCI and Dementia

Front Neurosci. 2021 Jun 21:15:690896. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.690896. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Georgios Ponirakis^{1

2}, Ahmed Elsotouhy^{1

3}, Hanadi Al Hamad⁴, Surjith Vattoth⁵, Ioannis N Petropoulos¹, Adnan Khan¹, Hoda Gad¹, Fatima Al-Khayat¹, Mani Chandran⁴, Marwan Ramadan⁴, Marwa Elorrabi⁴, Masharig Gadelseed⁴, Rhia Tosino⁴, Priya V Gawhale⁴, Maryam Alobaidi⁴, Shafi Khan⁴, Pravija Manikoth⁴, Yasmin H M Abdelrahim⁴, Noushad Thodi⁶, Hamad Almuhannadi¹, Salma Al-Mohannadi¹, Fatema AlMarri¹, Murtaza Qazi¹, Ahmed Own³, Ziyad R Mahfoud¹, Ashfaq Shuaib⁷, Rayaz A Malik^{1

2

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar.
² Faculty of Science and Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom.
³ Neuroradiology, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
⁴ Geriatric and Memory Clinic, Rumailah Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
⁵ Department of Radiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States.
⁶ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit, Rumailah Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
⁷ Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁸ Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Introduction: This study assessed the association of cerebral ischemia with neurodegeneration in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia.

Methods: Subjects with MCI, dementia and controls underwent assessment of cognitive function, severity of brain ischemia, MRI brain volumetry and corneal confocal microscopy.

Results: Of 63 subjects with MCI (n = 44) and dementia (n = 19), 11 had no ischemia, 32 had subcortical ischemia and 20 had both subcortical and cortical ischemia. Brain volume and corneal nerve measures were comparable between subjects with subcortical ischemia and no ischemia. However, subjects with subcortical and cortical ischemia had a lower hippocampal volume (P < 0.01), corneal nerve fiber length (P < 0.05) and larger ventricular volume (P < 0.05) compared to those with subcortical ischemia and lower corneal nerve fiber density (P < 0.05) compared to those without ischemia.

Discussion: Cerebral ischemia was associated with cognitive impairment, brain atrophy and corneal nerve loss in MCI and dementia.

Keywords: brain atrophy; corneal confocal microscopy; corneal nerve fibers; dementia; ischemic lesions; mild cognitive impairment; surrogate marker.

Copyright © 2021 Ponirakis, Elsotouhy, Al Hamad, Vattoth, Petropoulos, Khan, Gad, Al-Khayat, Chandran, Ramadan, Elorrabi, Gadelseed, Tosino, Gawhale, Alobaidi, Khan, Manikoth, Abdelrahim, Thodi, Almuhannadi, Al-Mohannadi, AlMarri, Qazi, Own, Mahfoud, Shuaib and Malik.