Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is reported to be probably linked to frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Since FTLD is characterized by severe frontotemporal degeneration along with hippocampal atrophy (HA), the present study used post-mortem 7.0-tesla magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether a certain degree of HA occurs in the ALS brains as well. The examined post-mortem brain samples comprised 9 from the ALS cases and 17 from the age-matched controls. The hippocampus samples were examined on the most representative coronal section using T2 and T2* MRI sequences, and the average degree of HA was determined for both groups. The occurrence of hippocampal micro-infarcts (HMIs) and hippocampal micro-bleeds (HMBs), as well as the frequency of cortical micro-infarcts (CoMIs) and cortical micro-bleeds (CoMBs) in the neocortex, were compared between the groups. Considerable HA was observed in the ALS group compared to the control group. The incidence of HMIs and HMBs was low and comparable in the ALS and control groups. Moreover, the frequency of CoMIs and CoMBs in the neocortex was relatively comparable in the two groups. This post-mortem observation of HA is an additional argument in favor of the link between ALS and FTLD. Furthermore, both ALS and FTLD share a low vascular risk profile.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have