Interhemispheric asymmetrical change in gray matter volume in patients with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis

To clarify the interhemispheric asymmetrical change in gray matter volume (GMV) in unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS), we compared changes in GMV relative to normal subjects between the HS and contralateral or non-HS sides.

Forty-five patients with unilateral HS and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled. We quantified changes in GMV in the patients with HS as compared to GMV in the normal subjects by introducing the Z-score (Z-GMV) in each region or region of interest in unilateral HS. Then, we assessed the asymmetrically decreased regions, that is, regions with significantly higher Z-GMV on the HS side than the contralateral or non-HS side. Z-GMV was calculated according to the two templates of 58 regions per hemisphere covering the whole brain by anatomical automatic labeling (AAL) and 78 regions per cerebral hemisphere using the Anatomy Toolbox.

Seven and four regions in AAL and 17 and 11 regions in Anatomy Toolbox were asymmetrically decreased in the Left Hand Side (LHS) and Right Hand Side (RHS), respectively. Hippocampus and Caudate in AAL, five subregions of the hippocampus (CA1-3, Dentate Gyrus and hippocampus-amygdala-transition-area and 4 extrahippocampal regions including two subregions in amygdala (CM: Centromedial, SF: Superficial), basal forebrain (BF) (Ch4), and thalamus (temporal) in anatomy toolbox were common among LHS and RHS concerning asymmetrically decreased regions.

By introducing Z-GMV, we demonstrated the regions with asymmetrically decreased GMV in LHS and RHS, and found that the hippocampus and extrahippocampal regions, including the BF, were the common asymmetrically decreased regions among LHS and RHS.