Published online Jun 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i18.4627
Peer-review started: March 2, 2021
First decision: April 4, 2021
Revised: April 6, 2021
Accepted: April 26, 2021
Article in press: April 26, 2021
Published online: June 26, 2021
Amygdala is closely related to emotion and memory. The dysfunction of amygdala plays an important role in the emotional disorder of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are few studies evaluating the degree of atrophy of amygdala measured by structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI).
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of amygdala on sMRI for AD.
In this study, the amygdala volumes were measured by sMRI both in AD patients and controls to evaluate the diagnostic value of amygdala. The correlation between amygdala atrophy and clinical features of AD was also analyzed.
Twenty-two AD patients and twenty-six controls were enrolled in this study. Their amygdala volumes were measured and analyzed using a set of image analysis software. All subjects received a cranial MRI scan and underwent neuropsychological tests. The mental and behavioral symptoms of all AD patients and the severity of the symptoms was graded.
The bilateral amygdala volumes of AD patients were significantly lower than those of the controls. The sensitivity of the left and right amygdala volumes in diagnosing AD was 80.8% and 88.5%, respectively. The amygdala atrophy was more serious in AD patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms including irritability, sleep difficulties, apathy and hallucination.
In this study, we found that the bilateral amygdala volumes of AD patients were significantly smaller than those of the controls, and were positively correlated with the hippocampal volumes, consistent with previous reports. In addition, the atrophy of the amygdala was more serious in those with neuropsychiatric symptoms. This study confirmed that the amygdala is involved in the mental symptoms of AD.
It is necessary to compare the amygdala volume in other types of dementia in the future, in order to improve the specificity of amygdala for the diagnosis of AD.