title: Absent gender differences of hippocampal atrophy in amnestic type mild cognitive impairment.
abstract: Hippocampus displayed progressively gender-associated damage in Alzheimer's disease. However, gender effects have been largely neglected in studies of amnestic type mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients who were believed to represent an early stage of this disease. The goal of this study was to use in vivo neuroimaging techniques to determine whether there were any evidences of gender differences in hippocampal atrophy in aMCI. A region of interest-based magnetic resonance imaging approach was used to compare hippocampal volume between aMCI patients (22 male, 17 female) and normal aging controls (12 male, 11 female). Independent of group, male hippocampal volumes were larger than female volumes and right hippocampal volumes were typically smaller than left volumes. Hippocampal volumes were significantly reduced in the clinical group but no gender differences were noted in terms of degree of atrophy present. However, female patients showed more impaired cognitive function than male patients despite this apparent equivalence in atrophy. The absence of a gender difference suggested that early neuropathological progression might be independent of gender. However, the data also suggested female aMCI patients had an increased vulnerability to cognitive impairment earlier in the illness course.
authors.affiliation: School of Clinical Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Wanlin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yonggui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000647:Amnesia / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012727:Sex Characteristics