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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Volume 16 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1444308
This article is part of the Research Topic Progress in the Assessment and Intervention of Neurocognitive Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases View all 4 articles

Anemia-associated smaller brain volume and sex differences: A crosssectional study of magnetic resonance imaging in brain health checkups

Provisionally accepted
Naoki Omori Naoki Omori 1*Masahiro Takamura Masahiro Takamura 2Manabu Ishida Manabu Ishida 1Satoshi Abe Satoshi Abe 1Atsushi Nagai Atsushi Nagai 1
  • 1 Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Anemia is a risk factor for dementia development. However, few studies have examined the relationship between brain volume and anemia. This study aimed to analyze the association between anemia and brain volume using magnetic resonance imaging data from brain health checkups. Participants underwent brain health checkups between January 2015 and March 2022. Blood samples were collected to measure hemoglobin concentrations and mean corpuscular volumes. The modified Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to evaluate cognitive function. Magnetic resonance images were analyzed using voxel-based Morphometry to evaluate the overall patterns of brain volume. After extracting the principal components (PCs) from PC analysis, we investigated their association with MMSE scores and anemia. This study included 1,029 participants and identified principal components, representing smaller volume in the frontal lobe (PC1), and smaller volume in the limbic system to the temporal lobe (PC2). A higher PC2 score was significantly associated with a lower MMSE score. Male participants with anemia had smaller bilateral PC1 volumes and left hippocampal volumes, and female participants with anemia had smaller bilateral PC2 volumes and hippocampus volumes. PC2 may represent the extent of disease affecting limbic system volume, such as Alzheimer's disease. Our results suggest that anemia may be associated with smaller volumes in the limbic system, especially in women. Further studies are required to determine which type of anemia is more strongly correlated with smaller brain volumes.

    Keywords: Anemia, Dementia, Limbic System, Mini Mental State Examination, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Principal Component Analysis

    Received: 05 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Omori, Takamura, Ishida, Abe and Nagai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Naoki Omori, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.