Patterns of hippocampal atrophy differ among Alzheimer's disease, amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and late-life depression.

AIM: This study investigated whether the characteristic changes in hippocampal atrophy seen in coronal scans are useful for differentiating Alzheimer's disease (AD), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS: Subjects included 58 patients with AD, 33 with aMCI, 20 with MDD, and 22 normal controls, all aged 60 years or older. For each subject, eight coronal short TI inversion recovery images perpendicular to the hippocampal longitudinal axis were obtained. Images were manually measured using the conventional region of interest method of quantitative analysis. RESULTS: The overall trend in the corrected volumes of the hippocampus was AD < aMCI < MDD < normal controls. We found atrophy in all slices in AD, atrophy centred on the hippocampal head in aMCI, and atrophy in the slice of the hippocampal body 12 mm from the amygdala in MDD. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggested that our method of comparing hippocampal atrophy by region may be useful in distinguishing AD, aMCI, MDD, and normal controls.

Comparison of alterations in cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation in late life depression and Alzheimer's disease as assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often present with apathy symptoms resembling the decreased motivation observed in depressed patients. Therefore, differentiating the initial phase of AD from late life depression may be difficult in some cases. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a functional neuroimaging modality that uses near-infrared light to measure changes in hemoglobin concentration on the cortical surface during activation tasks. The objective of this study was to investigate differences in brain activation associated with late life depression and with AD by means of NIRS. METHODS: NIRS was performed in 30 patients with depression, 28 patients with AD, and 33 healthy controls, all aged 60 years or older. During two tasks, a verbal fluency task and a visuospatial task, changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the frontal and parietal cortices were investigated. RESULTS: In the visuospatial task, cortical activation was lower in the depressed group than in the AD group, and significant differences were observed in the parietal cortex. CONCLUSIONS: NIRS can detect differences in brain activation between patients with late life depression and those with AD. NIRS is a promising tool for the differential diagnosis of late life depression and AD.

New visual rating system for medial temporal lobe atrophy: a simple diagnostic tool for routine examinations.

AIM: We estimated the usefulness of our new scale to rate medial temporal atrophy with short inversion time inversion recovery images. METHODS: Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects (n= 34) and non-demented subjects (n= 19) were recruited for this study. First, coronal short inversion time inversion recovery images were scanned vertical to the long axis of hippocampus. Next, the single image in which peduncles appeared widest was adopted for estimation. The parahippocampal cerebrospinal fluid space was divided into three parts: the outer, upper and inner parts. The hippocampus was defined as a structure being of equal intensity to grey matter. Two radiologists compared each part of the parahippocampal cerebrospinal fluid space with the hippocampus and rated them on a 0-3 scale. Interrater and intrarater kappa statistics and sensitivity/specificity for the diagnosis of AD were calculated using the scores of the right, left and both sides combined. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between AD and ND subjects with regards to sex. AD subjects had lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores and were older than non-demented subjects. Interrater and intrarater kappa statistics were 0.52-0.68 and 0.76-0.83, respectively. Sensitivity was 88.2% using the scores of both sides. CONCLUSIONS: Interrater and intrarater agreements were fair to good and good to excellent, respectively. Our new visual rating method detected medial temporal atrophy in AD patients at a highly sensitive rate. As such, we conclude that this visual rating scale is useful for judging medial temporal atrophy simply and objectively in clinical use, and it is helpful in establishing an AD diagnosis.

Comparison of diagnostic names of mental illnesses in medical documents before and after the adoption of a new Japanese translation of 'schizophrenia'.

AIM: The name of a disease entered in medical documents often differs from the true diagnosis in psychiatric practice. We examined the effects of different translations of 'schizophrenia' into Japanese on the usage of disease names in documents. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective survey of the names of diseases used in the medical documents of 250 outpatients with schizophrenia or depression. These patients had attended our department of psychiatry between 1998 and 2000. We also investigated the names of the diseases of 226 outpatients who had first visited our department between 2003 and 2007. We defined the diagnosis (based on ICD-10) as the 'ICD-10 disease name' and the name of the disease written in medical documents as the 'disease name in documents'. We classified the documents that were used to apply for national psychiatric care and welfare services as 'official documents' and those submitted to others as 'private documents'. RESULTS: Prior to 2000, the term 'seishin-bunretsu-byo' ('split-mind disease'; old translation of 'schizophrenia') was used in 72.3% of official documents and 3.6% of private documents. In 2003 and later, the term 'togo-shitcho-sho' ('integration disorder'; new translation of 'schizophrenia') was used in 98.0% of official documents and 21.7% of private documents. CONCLUSION: The use of 'togo-shitcho-sho' in official documents has become established. On the other hand, terms such as 'nervous breakdown' and 'depressive state' are still commonly used in private documents after the adoption of the new Japanese translation of schizophrenia.