title: Differential regional atrophy of the cingulate gyrus in Alzheimer disease: a volumetric MRI study.
abstract: Magnetic resonance imaging-based volumetric measurements provide a useful technique for quantifying in vivo regional cerebral atrophy in Alzheimer disease (AD). Histopathological studies have shown the cingulate cortex, a cytoarchitectonically heterogeneous region, to be severely affected in AD. In this study, we developed and validated a manual segmentation protocol, based on macroscopic characteristics such as gyri and sulci patterns, in order to assess volumetric changes in 4 cingulate regions of interest. Cingulate cortical volumes of 10 familial AD patients were compared with 10 age- and sex-matched controls. Inter- and intrarater reliability coefficients were high for all cingulate regions (91.9-99.4%). All 4 cingulate regions were significantly smaller (P < 0.05) in AD cases compared with controls: rostral anterior cingulate gyrus (22.5% smaller), caudal anterior cingulate gyrus (20.7% smaller), posterior cingulate gyrus (44.1% smaller), and retrosplenial cortex (21.5% smaller). The atrophy in the posterior cingulate region was significantly greater than that in other cingulate regions (P < 0.001), suggesting a higher vulnerability for this region in familial AD. Considering the functional and connectional differences of these 4 cingulate regions, detection and monitoring of their atrophy may provide insights into the natural history of AD and may help in the search for diagnostic markers for early AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. b.jones@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Bethany F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Josephine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Harry B M
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Uylings
authors.forename: Nick C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.forename: Menno P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Witter
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scheltens
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results