Relationships between hippocampal shape and cognitive performances in drug-naïve patients with Alzheimer's disease

Previous studies provided hippocampal shape analysis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients using automated segmentation techniques. However, the relationships between the hippocampal deformations and various cognitive impairments were not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate hippocampal shape changes and their relationship to cognitive impairments. Fifty-one drug-naïve patients with AD and 50 group-matched healthy control subjects underwent 3T MRI scanning, and the hippocampal volumes and deformations were compared between the groups. Additionally, we explored the correlation pattern between the hippocampal deformations and the cognitive dysfunctions in AD using the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD-K). AD subjects exhibited significant hippocampal deformations in the cornu ammnonis (CA1) and subiculum areas compared to those in healthy subjects (p<0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) corrected). Significant correlations were observed between hippocampal deformations in CA1 and subiculum areas and verbal immediate recall, verbal delayed recall, verbal recognition memory, and constructional recall scores (p<0.05, FDR corrected). This study was the first to explore the relationships between hippocampal deformations and various cognitive impairments of drug-naïve patients with AD. These structural changes in hippocampal CA1 and subiculum areas might be the core of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of hippocampal dysfunction and their relevance to the various cognitive dysfunctions in AD.