Morphometric measurements of MRI findings in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common degenerative neurological disorders among elderly people, and is associated with progressive cerebral atrophy. AD is characterized by deterioration of the memory, difficulties with language, alterations in behavior and dysfunction in daily activities. OBJECTIVES The purpose of the present study was to measure the total volumes of different parts of the brain of AD patients and healthy gender-matched controls using Cavalieri's volume estimate method, and to establish some brain ratios. Moreover, the authors wanted to test this method in measuring the volumes of various parts of the brain from MRI scans. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this study, the MRI scans of 15 right-handed individuals with probable AD and 10 healthy controls were assessed. Cavalieri's volume estimate method was applied to the brain MRI scans to calculate the volumes of various parts of the brain. RESULTS While the measurements showed a marked increase in the volume of cerebral ventricles and sulci in AD patients in comparison to the gender-matched controls, the volumes of cortical gray matter and cerebral hemispheric brain matter were reduced considerably. However, no significant differences were detected in the volume of the cerebellum + brainstem or intracranium in AD patients. There were also no major variations between male and female values of the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Overall, cerebral hemisphere and cortical gray matter atrophies were the most remarkable findings among AD patients in the present study; consequently, expansions of both the ventricles and subarachnoid space were formed. Cavalieri's volume estimate method was very efficient in calculating the volumes of different parts of brain from the MRI scans of both groups.