Three-dimensional Patterns of Hippocampal Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment

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Abstract
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a transitional state between normal cognition and Alzheimer disease (AD).1-4 Because memory disorders are the core clinical symptom in MCI and AD, and the earliest AD pathological changes have been noted in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus,5,6 most of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumetric studies conducted in MCI patients have focused on these brain regions. The hippocampus and entorhinal cortex volumes are smaller than those of healthy individuals, appearing to be somewhere between those of patients with AD and those of healthy individuals,7,8 or as atrophic as those of patients with AD.9,10 Studies11-13 that use whole brain techniques find that in addition to the loss of volume in mesial temporal lobe structures, MCI patients have atrophy in the other heteromodal association areas.