Correlation of the volume of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Objective To investigate the imaging features of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in the normal,mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD),and explore the value of diagnosing MCI and AD by using the method of MRI measuring the volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex.Method One hundred and twenty-two people including 42 cases of MCI,38 cases of AD,and 42 cases of noroal cognition(NC) were selected as our subjects from health examination persons both in hospital and outpatient service.All were performed general examination and neuropsychological scale evaluation.The volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex were measured by using MRI.The correlation between the volumetric changes of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex with scores of mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment(MoCA) was analyzed.Results The volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in the MCI group,AD group and NC group were (6.29 ± 1.13)cm3 and (2.71 ± 0.51) cm3,(6.27 ± 1.11) cm3 and (2.09 ±0.68) cm3,(7.01 ±0.92) cm3 and (3.12 ±0.34) cm3 respectively.The volume of MCI group was obviously smaller than that of NC group (P ＜ 0.05).The volume of AD group was smaller than that of NC group(P ＜0.01).The volume of AD group was obviously smaller than that of MCI group(P ＜0.01).There was positive correlation between hippocampus volume,the volume of entorhinal cortex and MMSE scores (r =0.770,0.811 ; P ＜ 0.01).Meanwhile,hippocampal volume,volume of entorhinal cortex were positive correlated with MoCA (r =0.810,0.842; P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion The atrophy of entorhinal cortex and hippocampus is closely related to cognitive disorder.The MRI measuring of the volume of entorhinal cortex and hippocampus has a potential value in diagnosing and distinguishing of MCI and NC. Key words: Alzheimer's disease; Cognitive impairment; Hippocampus; Entorhinal cortex; Magnetic resonance imaging