MRI analysis of hippocampal head, body and tail volume changes in progresses of Alzheimer disease / 中国医学影像技术

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the morphological changes of the head,body and tail of the hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).Methods Totally 30 AD (AD group),30 mild cognition impairment (MCI) patients (MCI group) and 30 normal old persons (normal control group) underwent brain MR scan.Based on the MR images,the head,body and tail of the hippocampus were segmented and the volume was measured.The difference of the volume in total,head,body and tail of hippocampus in AD group,MCI group and normal control group were compared.The correlation between hippocampal volume and the scores of neurological assessment scale was analyzed.Results The left total,head,body and tail volume were greater than those of the right side in 3 groups (all P＜0.05).For the comparison of total volume of left and right sides among the 3 groups,AD group was less than normal control group (both P＜0.01) and MCI group (both P＜0.05),MCI group was less than normal control group (both P＜0.05).Compared with the normal control group,the head,body and tail volume of hippocampus of both sides were decreased in AD group (all P＜0.05) and the volume of left head,body and right head of hippocampus in MCI group were decreased (all P＜0.05).Both sides hippocampus's head and body volume of AD group were less than those of MCI group (both P＜0.05).The scores of minimum mental state examination (MMSE) were positively correlated with the total and the head,body,tail volume of bilateral hippocampus.Except volume of left tail,there were negative correlations between the scores of activities of daily living (ADL),clinical dementia rating (CDR) and the volume of total and head,body,tail of bilateral hippocampus,which were positively correlated with Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) score.Conclusion The volume of bilateral hippocampus was significantly reduced in AD patients.The head of hippocampal volume was significantly reduced and the body and tail was not obvious.