Differential regional atrophy of the cingulate gyrus in Alzheimer disease: A volumetric MRI study

Magnetic resonance imaging-based volumetric measurements provide a useful technique for quantifying in vivo regional cerebral atrophy in Alzheimer disease (AD). Histopathological studies have shown the cingulate cortex, a cytoarchitectonically heterogeneous region, to be severely affected in AD. In this study, we developed and validated a manual segmentation protocol, based on macroscopic characteristics such as gyri and sulci patterns, in order to assess volumetric changes in 4 cingulate regions of interest. Cingulate cortical volumes of 10 familial AD patients were compared with 10 age- and sex-matched controls. Inter- and intrarater reliability coefficients were high for all cingulate regions (91.9-99.4%). All 4 cingulate regions were significantly smaller (P < 0.05) in AD cases compared with controls: rostral anterior cingulate gyrus (22.5% smaller), caudal anterior cingulate gyrus (20.7% smaller), posterior cingulate gyrus (44.1% smaller), and retrosplenial cortex (21.5% smaller). The atrophy in the posterior cingulate region was significantly greater than that in other cingulate regions (P < 0.001), suggesting a higher vulnerability for this region in familial AD. Considering the functional and connectional differences of these 4 cingulate regions, detection and monitoring of their atrophy may provide insights into the natural history of AD and may help in the search for diagnostic markers for early AD.