Cerebral Metabolic Changes in Diabetes Type 2 Studied Using in-vivo Proton MRS

Meera Ekka¹, Uma Sharma², Sanjiv Sinha¹, Naranamangalam R. Jagannathan²

In-vivo proton MR spectroscopy of brain in patients with diabetes type 2 and controls demonstrated significant changes in the concentration of N acetyl aspartate (NAA), glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln) and glucose (Glc) metabolites in right frontal and right parieto-occipital regions of brain. The reduction in NAA reflects axonal or neuronal dysfunction or loss in neuronal density. Glucose may be increased during osmotic disturbances related to hyperglycemia in diabetes patients. Our findings demonstrated that Type 2 diabetes mellitus may cause cerebral metabolic changes which are indicative of slowly progressive neuronal dysfunction through an ischemic/hypoxic mechanism due to chronic hyperglycemia.