Association of lamina cribrosa thickness and hippocampal volume in Alzheimer's disease patients.

BACKGROUND

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and affects a large portion of the elderly population worldwide.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the relationship between lamina cribrosa thickness (LCT) and hippocampal volume in patients with AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

METHODS

The sample in the present study consisted of 20 recently diagnosed MCI patients, 20 recently diagnosed AD patients, and 20 matched healthy volunteers. Every patient underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The VolBrain software (open-access platform for MRI brain analysis) was used to calculate the hippocampal volume. Optical coherence tomography was performed to measure the LCT. Analysis of variance and Pearson chi-squared tests were employed to assess the results.

RESULTS

The lowest total hippocampal volume ( < 0.05) was in the AD group, which was 6.14 ± 0.66 mm, while in the control group, it was 7.7 ± 9.65 mm, and 6.69 ± 0.46 mm in the MCI group. In comparison to the rest of the groups, in the AD group, the LCT was the thinnest (202.17 ± 16.35 µm). As per the results of the study population as a whole, low hippocampal volume causes low LCT, which shows an important relationship (r: 0.41;  < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The current findings present evidence of the relationship between hippocampal volume and LCT in patients with AD and MCI.