Localization of age-associated white matter hyperintensities in late-life depression

Objective: Deep white matter hyperintense lesions are associated with advanced age and late-life depression. The authors examined where age-related cerebral lesions occurred in elderly depressed and healthy control subjects. Methods: Eighty-seven depressed subjects and 47 control subjects underwent 1.5 T cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Utilizing a semiautomated method, a segmented image was created containing only white matter lesions. We created a statistical parametric map (SPM) separately for each subject group that displayed the association between lesions in any voxel and advanced age. Results: The SPM analysis in depressed subjects demonstrates a significant association between age and lesions found in bilateral, frontal, and left parietal regions. The analysis in control subjects found significant associations only in bilateral parieto-temporal regions, not frontal regions. Conclusions: This study demonstrates a different pattern of age-related lesion location between depressed and control subjects. It further supports the theory that frontostriatal disconnection contributes to late-life depression. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.