title: Hippocampal atrophy correlates with the severity of cognitive decline.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study is to compare the results of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, particularly the decline in hippocampal volume, of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with healthy age-matched controls, to examine the reliability of hippocampal volumetry in the early diagnosis of AD and the correlation of the severity of hippocampal atrophy with the severity of cognitive decline.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-six AD, 22 MCI and 15 normal cognitive status (NCS) patients were scanned with a 3 Tesla MR scanner. Hippocampus volumes were detected manually by Osiris 4.18.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multivariate regression analysis, which was performed to adjust the covariate effects of education, age, gender, hypertension and diabetes mellitus, showed that hippocampal atrophy was correlated with AD and MCI for right hippocampus; AD, MCI and age for left hippocampus independent of other parameters. A second regression analysis revealed that MMSE was correlated with hippocampal volume.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hippocampal volumetry can be used in early diagnosis of cognitive impairment, as well as grading cognitive decline.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Hacettepe University, and Ankara Oncology Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Turkey. bbdogu@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Burcu Balam
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.forename: Servet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ariogul
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cankurtaran
authors.forename: Kader Karli
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Oguz
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halil
authors.forename: Neslihan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dagli
authors.forename: Eylem Sahin
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cankurtaran
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001284:Atrophy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index