Hippocampal atrophy correlates with the severity of cognitive decline.
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.
Yavuz
Burcu Balam
BB
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Hacettepe University, and Ankara Oncology Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Turkey. bbdogu@yahoo.com
Ariogul
Servet
S
Cankurtaran
Mustafa
M
Oguz
Kader Karli
KK
Halil
Meltem
M
Dagli
Neslihan
N
Cankurtaran
Eylem Sahin
ES
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