Basal serum cortisol levels, Depression and Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease

Serum Cortisol, Depression, Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy, Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment. Abstract: Objectives: Changes in serum cortisol levels have been reported in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Atrophy of Medial Temporal Lobes (MTLs) is common in both conditions. Glucocorticoids are known to be neurotoxic and have been believed to cause damage to memory mechanisms in the brains; whether the same is applicable to AD/MCI is not known. Also, they have long been hypothesized to cause atrophy of MTLs but the proof of the same is lacking. The present study was performed to delineate correlations between serum Cortisol levels, Depression in Dementia and Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy in patients with AD/MCI. Methods: We randomly recruited 28 patients out of a total of 65 presenting with subjective memory complaints to the Department of Neurology, at a tertiary care institute during the study period (July 2014-2015). Morning serum Cortisol levels (8 AM) were analyzed in all patients (n=28) who met the diagnostic criteria for diagnosis of probable AD e.g. National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, Alzheimer’s disease related Disease Association criteria (NINCDS-ARDA) and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) for AD and MCI respectively. The Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) was used to evaluate Depression. Visual Rating of Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy (MTLA) was done using the Scheltens Visual Rating Scale. An association between the Depression and MTLA was evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficient.