Curved multiplanar reformatting provides improved visualization of hippocampal anatomy.

Donald William Gross,Ehsan Misaghi,Trevor A Steve,Christian Beaulieu,Alan H Wilman

doi:10.1002/hipo.23177

Donald William Gross, Ehsan Misaghi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23177

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Journal: Hippocampus	Publication Date: Nov 19, 2019
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Alberta

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature studying changes in hippocampal subfields in a variety of different neurological conditions, but this work has mainly focused on the hippocampal body given challenges in visualization of hippocampal anatomy in the head and tail when sectioned in the typical coronal image plane. Curved multiplanar reformatting (CMPR) is an image reconstruction method that can improve visualization of complex three‐dimensional structures. The objective of this study was to determine whether CMPR could facilitate visualization of the human hippocampal anatomy along the entire caudal–rostral axis. CMPR was applied to high‐resolution magnetic resonance imaging acquired ex vivo on four cadaveric hippocampal specimens at 4.7 T (T2‐weighted, 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.5 mm3). CMPR provided clear visualization of the classic “interlocking C” appearance of the dentate gyrus and cornu ammonis along the entire caudal–rostral axis including the head and tail, which otherwise show complex anatomy on the standard coronal slices. CMPR facilitated visualization of hippocampal anatomy providing the impetus to develop simplified approaches to delineate subfields along the entire hippocampus including the usually neglected head and tail.

Highlights

The human hippocampus develops further complexity with digitations creating a segmented appearance along its long axis with the medial curvature of the caudal and rostral ends of the structure resulting in its crescent shape (Supporting Information Video S1, Figure 2)
Based on the expectation that the classical “interlocking C” relationship of the cornu ammonis and dentate gyrus is preserved throughout the entire hippocampus including the head, Curved multiplanar reformatting (CMPR) was applied here to ex vivo MRI to facilitate the visualization of hippocampal anatomy in the head and tail
Based on the hypothesis that consistent cross-sectional anatomy would be observed along the entire length of the hippocampus, the plane of visualization was manually adjusted in order to achieve the orientation that best demonstrated the “interlocking C” relationship between the cornu ammonis and the dentate gyrus for each slice

Summary

Introduction

The human hippocampus develops further complexity with digitations (bulges separated by shallow grooves) creating a segmented appearance along its long axis with the medial curvature of the caudal (head) and rostral (tail) ends of the structure resulting in its crescent shape (Supporting Information Video S1, Figure 2). Based on the expectation that the classical “interlocking C” relationship of the cornu ammonis (hippocampus proper) and dentate gyrus is preserved throughout the entire hippocampus including the head, CMPR was applied here to ex vivo MRI to facilitate the visualization of hippocampal anatomy in the head and tail.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion