Cortical thinning of parahippocampal subregions in very early Alzheimer's disease

Sabine Krumm; Sasa L Kivisaari; Alphonse Probst; Andreas U Monsch; Julia Reinhardt; Stephan Ulmer; Christoph Stippich; Reto W Kressig; Kirsten I Taylor

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.11.001

Cortical thinning of parahippocampal subregions in very early Alzheimer's disease

Neurobiol Aging. 2016 Feb:38:188-196. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.11.001. Epub 2015 Nov 10.

Authors

Sabine Krumm¹, Sasa L Kivisaari², Alphonse Probst³, Andreas U Monsch⁴, Julia Reinhardt⁵, Stephan Ulmer⁶, Christoph Stippich⁷, Reto W Kressig⁸, Kirsten I Taylor⁹

Affiliations

¹ Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: sabine.krumm@fps-basel.ch.
² Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Aalto, Finland.
³ Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Neuropathology, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁴ Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Radiology, Division of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁶ Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany; Medical Radiological Institute (MRI), Zurich, Switzerland.
⁷ Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Radiology, Division of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁸ Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁹ Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix-Platter Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

PMID: 26827657
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.11.001

Abstract

The stereotypical pattern of neurofibrillary tangle spreading in the earliest stages of typical Alzheimer's dementia (AD) predicts that medial perirhinal cortex (mPRC) atrophy precedes entorhinal cortex (ERC) atrophy, whereas the status of the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) remains unclear. Atrophy studies have focused on more advanced rather than early AD patients, and usually segment the entire PRC as opposed to the mPRC versus lateral PRC (lPRC). The present study therefore determined the extent of ERC, mPRC, lPRC, and PHC atrophy in very early AD (mean Mini-Mental State Examination score = 26) patients and its presumed prodrome amnestic mild cognitive impairment (mean Mini-Mental State Examination score = 28) compared to demographically matched controls. PHG structures were manually segmented (blinded rater) and cortical thicknesses extracted. ERC and mPRC were similarly atrophied in both patient groups. The lPRC was atrophied in the AD group only. Thus, atrophic changes in very early AD broadly map onto the pattern of neurofibrillary tangle spreading and suggest that mPRC, ERC, and lPRC, but not PHC-associated functional impairments, characterize very early-stage AD.

Keywords: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment; Atrophy; Entorhinal cortex; Parahippocampal cortex; Perirhinal cortex; Structural MRI.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease / pathology*
Atrophy
Entorhinal Cortex / pathology
Female
Hippocampus / pathology*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neurofibrillary Tangles / pathology
Neuroimaging
Parahippocampal Gyrus / pathology*
Severity of Illness Index