Introduction. Measurement of an- hippocampal area or volume is useful in clinical practice as a supportive aid for diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Since it is time-consuming and not simple, it is not being used very often. We present a simplified protocol for hippocampal atrophy evaluation based on a single optimal slice in Alzheimer’s disease. Methods. We defined a single optimal slice for hippocampal measurement on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the plane where the amygdala disappears and only the hippocampus is present. We compared an absolute area and volume of the hippocampus on this optimal slice between 40 patients with Alzheimer disease and 40 age-, education- and gender-mateched elderly controls. Furthermore, we compared these results with those relative to the size of the brain or the skull: the area of the optimal slice normalized to the area of the brain at anterior commissure and the volume of the hippocampus normalized to the total intracranial volume. Results. Hippocampal areas on the single optimal slice and hippocampal volumes on the left and right in the control group were significantly higher than those in the AD group. Normalized hippocampal areas and volumes on the left and right in the control group were significantly higher compared to the AD group. Absolute hippocampal areas and volumes did not significantly differ from corresponding normalized hippocampal areas as well as normalized hippocampal volumes using comparisons of areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves. Conclusion. The hippocampal area on the well-defined optimal slice of brain MRI can reliably substitute a complicated measurement of the hippocampal volume. Surprisingly, brain or skull normalization of these variables does not add any incremental differentiation between Alzheimer disease patients and controls or give better results.

中文翻译：

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通过脑磁共振成像轻松识别最佳冠状切片以测量阿尔茨海默病患者的海马区

简介。海马面积或体积的测量在临床实践中作为阿尔茨海默病诊断的辅助辅助手段是有用的。由于它耗时且不简单，因此不经常使用。我们提出了一个基于阿尔茨海默病单个最佳切片的海马萎缩评估的简化方案。方法. 我们在杏仁核消失且仅存在海马的平面上定义了一个用于脑磁共振成像 (MRI) 海马测量的最佳切片。我们比较了 40 名阿尔茨海默病患者和 40 名年龄、教育程度和性别匹配的老年对照组之间海马体的绝对面积和体积。此外，我们将这些结果与与大脑或颅骨大小相关的结果进行了比较：最佳切片面积标准化为大脑前连合区域，海马体积标准化为颅内总体积。结果. 对照组单张最佳切片海马面积和左右海马体积均显着高于AD组。与AD组相比，对照组左侧和右侧的标准化海马面积和体积显着更高。通过比较接收者操作特征曲线下的面积，绝对海马面积和体积与相应的归一化海马面积以及归一化海马体积没有显着差异。结论. 明确定义的脑 MRI 最佳切片上的海马区域可以可靠地替代海马体积的复杂测量。令人惊讶的是，这些变量的大脑或颅骨标准化不会增加阿尔茨海默病患者和对照组之间的任何增量差异，也不会产生更好的结果。