Hippocampal sulcal cavities in healthy individual: high resolution magnetic resonance imaging using 3.0 MRI

Most of the studies on hippocampal sulcal cavities (HSCs) have been focused on the hippocampal lesions, lacking of systemic investigations on the normal individuals. In this study, we aimed to investigate the detection rate and number of HSCs together with the correlation between HSCs and the gender, sides, hippocampal volume, and age. In total, 187 healthy subjects underwent 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance scan. Chi square test was utilized for the comparison of HSCs detection rate among the male and female individuals. Student's t-test was used to compare the HSCs number between the subjects with different ages as well as different body sides. Analysis of variance was performed for the comparison of primary hippocampal volume, corrected hippocampal volume, and age. Person regression analysis was utilized to analyze the correlation between HSCs number and the primary hippocampal volume, corrected hippocampal volume, and age. The incidence of HSCs was 95% among the 187 subjects. There was no significant gender difference in the incidence of HSCs (P=0.448). There was no statistically significant difference in the number of HSCs on the left and right sides (P=0.093). There were statistically significant differences in mean age between groups (P<0.01). Pearson correlation analysis was performed on HSCs with age, hippocampal original volume and corrected volume, and the correlation coefficients were 0.316, -0.005 and 0.055. Healthy population has a high HSCs incidence, which had no significant gender-related difference. There is no significant difference of HSCs number between the left and right sides. HSCs showed a low correlation with age and no correlation with hippocampal volume.