Low Subicular Volume as an Indicator of Dementia-Risk Susceptibility in Old Age

Sonja M Kagerer; Clemens Schroeder; Jiri M G van Bergen; Simon J Schreiner; Rafael Meyer; Stefanie C Steininger; Laetitia Vionnet; Anton F Gietl; Valerie Treyer; Alfred Buck; Klaas P Pruessmann; Christoph Hock; Paul G Unschuld

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.811146

Low Subicular Volume as an Indicator of Dementia-Risk Susceptibility in Old Age

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Mar 3:14:811146. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.811146. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sonja M Kagerer^{1

2}, Clemens Schroeder¹, Jiri M G van Bergen¹, Simon J Schreiner¹, Rafael Meyer¹, Stefanie C Steininger², Laetitia Vionnet³, Anton F Gietl^{1

2}, Valerie Treyer^{1

4}, Alfred Buck⁴, Klaas P Pruessmann³, Christoph Hock^{1

5}, Paul G Unschuld^{1

2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Psychogeriatric Medicine, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁵ Neurimmune, Schlieren, Switzerland.
⁶ Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Introduction: Hippocampal atrophy is an established Alzheimer's Disease (AD) biomarker. Volume loss in specific subregions as measurable with ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may reflect earliest pathological alterations.

Methods: Data from positron emission tomography (PET) for estimation of cortical amyloid β (Aβ) and high-resolution 7 Tesla T1 MRI for assessment of hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed in 61 non-demented elderly individuals who were divided into risk-categories as defined by high levels of cortical Aβ and low performance in standardized episodic memory tasks.

Results: High cortical Aβ and low episodic memory interactively predicted subicular volume [F(3,57) = 5.90, p = 0.018]. The combination of high cortical Aβ and low episodic memory was associated with significantly lower subicular volumes, when compared to participants with high episodic memory (p = 0.004).

Discussion: Our results suggest that low subicular volume is linked to established indicators of AD risk, such as increased cortical Aβ and low episodic memory. Our data support subicular volume as a marker of dementia-risk susceptibility in old-aged non-demented persons.

Keywords: 7 Tesla; Alzheimer’s disease; episodic memory; hippocampus subfield segmentation; iron; prodromal AD; subiculum; ultra-high field MRI.