title: Structural changes of the corpus callosum in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although previous studies demonstrate significant atrophy of the corpus callosum (CC) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), CC alterations in mild cognitive impairment have not been investigated yet.
  
  
  METHODS
  21 subjects with mild cognitive impairment, 10 with AD and 21 healthy controls were investigated using magnetic resonance imaging. In the mid-sagittal slice the CC was traced manually. Additionally, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CC was significantly smaller in patients with AD compared to healthy controls in both manual tracing and VBM. The atrophy was prominent in rostral parts of the CC. In subjects with mild cognitive impairment, the two rostral CC segments were smaller compared to controls when manually traced. In contrast, VBM revealed no significant difference between subjects with mild cognitive impairment and controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Manual tracing was more sensitive in detecting discrete structural CC changes than VBM. Alterations of the CC in mild cognitive impairment rank in between normal aging and AD, supporting the hypothesis that mild cognitive impairment most often represents a preclinical stage of AD.
authors.affiliation: Section of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Thomann
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wustenberg
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pantel
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Essig
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schroder
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male