TY - JOUR
T1 - Amygdala atrophy is prominent in early Alzheimer's disease and relates to symptom severity
AU - Poulin, Stéphane P.
AU - Dautoff, Rebecca
AU - Morris, John C.
AU - Barrett, Lisa Feldman
AU - Dickerson, Bradford C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Data collection and sharing for this project was funded by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health Grant U01 AG024904 ). ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and through generous contributions from the following: Abbott, AstraZeneca AB, Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai Global Clinical Development, Elan Corporation, Genentech, GE Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Innogenetics, Johnson and Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., Medpace, Inc., Merck and Co., Inc., Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Schering-Plough, Synarc, Inc., as well as non-profit partners the Alzheimer's Association and Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, with participation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Private sector contributions to ADNI are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health ( www.fnih.org ). The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study is coordinated by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for Neuro Imaging at the University of California, Los Angeles. This research was also supported by NIH grants P30 AG010129 , K01 AG030514 , and the Dana Foundation . This work was also supported by R01-AG029411 , R21-AG029840 , P50-AG05134 , P50-AG05681 , and P01-AG003991 , U24-RR021382 , R01-MH56584 , R01-AG030311 , and DP1OD003312 . This work was supported in part by the McLaughlin Dean's grant, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada .
PY - 2011/10/31
Y1 - 2011/10/31
N2 - Despite numerous studies on the role of medial temporal lobe structures in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the magnitude and clinical significance of amygdala atrophy have been relatively sparsely investigated. In this study, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the level of amygdala atrophy to that of the hippocampus in very mild and mild AD subjects in two large samples (Sample 1 n= 90; Sample 2 n= 174). Using a series of linear regression analyses, we investigated whether amygdala atrophy is related to global cognitive functioning (Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes: CDR-SB; Mini Mental State Examination: MMSE) and neuropsychiatric status. Results indicated that amygdala atrophy was comparable to hippocampal atrophy in both samples. MMSE and CDR-SB were strongly related to amygdala atrophy, with amygdala atrophy predicting MMSE scores as well as hippocampal atrophy, but predicting CDR-SB scores less robustly. Amygdala atrophy was related to aberrant motor behavior, with potential relationships to anxiety and irritability. These results suggest that the magnitude of amygdala atrophy is comparable to that of the hippocampus in the earliest clinical stages of AD, and is related to global illness severity. There also appear to be specific relationships between the level of amygdala atrophy and neuropsychiatric symptoms that deserve further investigation.
AB - Despite numerous studies on the role of medial temporal lobe structures in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the magnitude and clinical significance of amygdala atrophy have been relatively sparsely investigated. In this study, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the level of amygdala atrophy to that of the hippocampus in very mild and mild AD subjects in two large samples (Sample 1 n= 90; Sample 2 n= 174). Using a series of linear regression analyses, we investigated whether amygdala atrophy is related to global cognitive functioning (Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes: CDR-SB; Mini Mental State Examination: MMSE) and neuropsychiatric status. Results indicated that amygdala atrophy was comparable to hippocampal atrophy in both samples. MMSE and CDR-SB were strongly related to amygdala atrophy, with amygdala atrophy predicting MMSE scores as well as hippocampal atrophy, but predicting CDR-SB scores less robustly. Amygdala atrophy was related to aberrant motor behavior, with potential relationships to anxiety and irritability. These results suggest that the magnitude of amygdala atrophy is comparable to that of the hippocampus in the earliest clinical stages of AD, and is related to global illness severity. There also appear to be specific relationships between the level of amygdala atrophy and neuropsychiatric symptoms that deserve further investigation.
KW - Hippocampus
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Neuropsychiatric symptoms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053383653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.06.014
DO - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.06.014
M3 - Article
C2 - 21920712
AN - SCOPUS:80053383653
VL - 194
SP - 7
EP - 13
JO - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
JF - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
SN - 0925-4927
IS - 1
ER -