Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on January 4, 2006
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhj105
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
16/12/1701    most recent
bhj105v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jones, B. F.
Right arrow Articles by Scheltens, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Jones, B. F.
Right arrow Articles by Scheltens, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Differential Regional Atrophy of the Cingulate Gyrus in Alzheimer Disease: A Volumetric MRI Study

Bethany F. Jones 1 *, Josephine Barnes 2, Harry B.M. Uylings 3, Nick C. Fox 2, Chris Frost 4, Menno P. Witter 5, and Philip Scheltens 1

1 Department of Neurology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2 Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, UK
3 Department of Anatomy, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, KNAW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4 Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, UK; Medical Statistics Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, UK
5 Department of Anatomy, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Bethany F. Jones, E-mail: b.jones{at}vumc.nl


  Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging-based volumetric measurements provide a useful technique for quantifying in vivo regional cerebral atrophy in Alzheimer disease (AD). Histopathological studies have shown the cingulate cortex, a cytoarchitectonically heterogeneous region, to be severely affected in AD. In this study, we developed and validated a manual segmentation protocol, based on macroscopic characteristics such as gyri and sulci patterns, in order to assess volumetric changes in 4 cingulate regions of interest. Cingulate cortical volumes of 10 familial AD patients were compared with 10 age- and sex-matched controls. Inter- and intrarater reliability coefficients were high for all cingulate regions (91.9-99.4%). All 4 cingulate regions were significantly smaller (P < 0.05) in AD cases compared with controls: rostral anterior cingulate gyrus (22.5% smaller), caudal anterior cingulate gyrus (20.7% smaller), posterior cingulate gyrus (44.1% smaller), and retrosplenial cortex (21.5% smaller). The atrophy in the posterior cingulate region was significantly greater than that in other cingulate regions (P < 0.001), suggesting a higher vulnerability for this region in familial AD. Considering the functional and connectional differences of these 4 cingulate regions, detection and monitoring of their atrophy may provide insights into the natural history of AD and may help in the search for diagnostic markers for early AD.

Keywords: anterior cingulate cortex; dementia; posterior cingulate cortex; retrosplenial cortex; volumetry.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.