Hippocampal Shape Analysis in Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Subtypes

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Lindberg, Olof^{a; *} | Walterfang, Mark^b | Looi, Jeffrey C.L.^c | Malykhin, Nikolai^d | Östberg, Per^e | Zandbelt, Bram^f | Styner, Martin^g | Paniagua, Beatriz^g | Velakoulis, Dennis^b | Örndahl, Eva^{h; i} | Wahlund, Lars-Olof^a

Affiliations: [a] Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden | [b] Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia | [c] Research Centre for The Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychological and Addiction Medicine, ANU Medical School, College of Medicine, Biology and The Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia | [d] Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada | [e] Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden | [f] Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands | [g] Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA | [h] Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology at Karolinska Institutet, Division of Medical Imaging and Technology, Stockholm, Sweden | [i] Department of Radiology, Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Olof Lindberg, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, Plan 5, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 8 585 855 55 (+46 722255711); Fax: +46 8 585 854 70; E-mail: olof.lindberg@ki.se.

Abstract: Hippocampal pathology is central to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia such as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Autopsy studies have shown that certain hippocampal subfields are more vulnerable than others to AD and FTLD pathology, in particular the subiculum and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1). We conducted shape analysis of hippocampi segmented from structural T1 MRI images on clinically diagnosed dementia patients and controls. The subjects included 19 AD and 35 FTLD patients [13 frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 13 semantic dementia (SD), and 9 progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA)] and 21 controls. Compared to controls, SD displayed severe atrophy of the whole left hippocampus. PNFA and FTD also displayed atrophy on the left side, restricted to the hippocampal head in FTD. Finally, AD displayed most atrophy in left hippocampal body with relative sparing of the hippocampal head. Consistent with neuropathological studies, most atrophic deformation was found in CA1 and subiculum areas in FTLD and AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, hippocampus, shape analysis

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-2012-112210

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 355-365, 2012