[Reliability of volumetric measures of mesial temporal structures].

RATIONALE

The development of reliable techniques for volumetric measurement of mesial temporal structures (amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide data for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders, mainly temporal lobe epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.

METHOD

We investigated these techniques performing intraobserver and interobserver reliability study concerning normal controls, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease patients using the intra-class correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

Intra-observer reliability of evaluated structures ranged from 0.93 to 0.99 (p<0.001). Inter-observer reliability ranged from 0.70 to 0.95 (p < or = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that the technique of MRI morphometry of mesial temporal regions can be considered a reliable tool which may help in the investigation of neuropsychiatric disorders, since used by adequately trained clinicians and researchers.