Predicting the location of entorhinal cortex from MRI.
Entorhinal cortex (EC) is a medial temporal lobe area critical to memory formation and spatial navigation that is among the earliest parts of the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accurate localization of EC would thus greatly facilitate early detection and diagnosis of AD. In this study, we used ultra-high resolution ex vivo MRI to directly visualize the architectonic features that define EC rostrocaudally and mediolaterally, then applied surface-based registration techniques to quantify the variability of EC with respect to cortical geometry, and made predictions of its location on in vivo scans. The results indicate that EC can be localized quite accurately based on cortical folding patterns, within 3 mm in vivo, a significant step forward in our ability to detect the earliest effects of AD when clinical intervention is most likely to be effective.
Athinoula A Martinos Center, Department of Radiology, MGH, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. fischl@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Bruce
B
Fischl
Allison A
AA
Stevens
Niranjini
N
Rajendran
B T Thomas
BT
Yeo
Douglas N
DN
Greve
Koen
K
Van Leemput
Jonathan R
JR
Polimeni
Sita
S
Kakunoori
Randy L
RL
Buckner
Jennifer
J
Pacheco
David H
DH
Salat
Jennifer
J
Melcher
Matthew P
MP
Frosch
Bradley T
BT
Hyman
P Ellen
PE
Grant
Bruce R
BR
Rosen
André J W
AJ
van der Kouwe
Graham C
GC
Wiggins
Lawrence L
LL
Wald
Jean C
JC
Augustinack
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010784:Photomicrography