title: Vascular risk factors, white matter hyperintensities and hippocampal volume in normal elderly individuals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hippocampal atrophy has been identified as marker for the development of Alzheimer's dementia (AD). To what extent vascular risk factors and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) affect hippocampal volume (HV) in asymptomatic elderly subjects and thus may impact such a predictive capacity is controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed 287 participants of the Austrian Stroke Prevention Study (mean age 66.6 ± 6.6 years) with a Mini Mental State Examination score ≥27 who were free of neuropsychiatric disease and had undergone MRI including coronal T(1)-weighted sequences allowing for semi-automatic assessment of HV. Global brain volume (BV) was measured using SIENAX. WMH were rated according to the Fazekas scale and segmented to obtain WMH volumes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Higher age was associated with lower absolute and normalized HV, a lower BV and higher WMH volume. None of the vascular risk factors had an impact on HV except for high-density lipoprotein. This effect disappeared after normalization of HV. WMH severity and volume did not affect HV either.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicate HV loss in parallel with the whole brain and suggest no specific vulnerability towards vascular risk factors or age-related WMH in a cognitively intact normal elderly population. This also supports the utility of HV measurements to identify impending AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gattringer
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Enzinger
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ropele
authors.forename: Faton
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gorani
authors.forename: Katja Elisabeth
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Petrovic
authors.forename: Reinhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fazekas
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional; D001284:Atrophy; D001317:Austria; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000473:pathology*; D059345:Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D056784:Leukoencephalopathies / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*