Dehydration confounds the assessment of brain atrophy.
Computerized brain volumetry has potential value for diagnosis and the follow-up evaluation of degenerative disorders. A potential pitfall of this method is the extent of physiologic variations in brain volume. The authors show that dehydration and rehydration can significantly change brain volume: lack of fluid intake for 16 hours decreased brain volume by 0.55% (SD, +/-0.69), and after rehydration total cerebral volume increased by 0.72% (SD, +/-0.21).
Duning
T
T
Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 22, 48129 Münster, Germany. duningt@uni-muenster.de
Kloska
S
S
Steinsträter
O
O
Kugel
H
H
Heindel
W
W
Knecht
S
S
D000328:Adult; D001284:Atrophy; D001834:Body Water; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003681:Dehydration / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size