Entorhinal and transentorhinal atrophy in mild cognitive impairment using longitudinal diffeomorphometry

Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2017 Sep 14:9:41-50. doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2017.07.005. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Introduction: Autopsy findings have shown the entorhinal cortex and transentorhinal cortex are among the earliest sites of accumulation of pathology in patients developing Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: Here, we study this region in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (n = 36) and in control subjects (n = 16). The cortical areas are manually segmented, and local volume and shape changes are quantified using diffeomorphometry, including a novel mapping procedure that reduces variability in anatomic definitions over time.

Results: We find significant thickness and volume changes localized to the transentorhinal cortex through high field strength atlasing.

Discussion: This demonstrates that in vivo neuroimaging biomarkers can detect these early changes among subjects with mild cognitive impairment.

Keywords: Braak staging; Diffeomorphometry; Entorhinal cortex; Longitudinal analysis; Mild cognitive impairment; Shape analysis.