Retrosplenial cortex (BA 29) volumes in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and alzheimer's disease

Rachel H. Tan, Stephanie Wong, John R. Hodges, Glenda M. Halliday, Michael Hornberger*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is a crucial transit region between the hippocampus and cingulate cortex and has been implicated in spatial navigation and memory. Importantly, RSC atrophy is a predilection site of Alzheimer's (AD) pathology, but there have been no studies assessing structural changes in the RSC in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Methods: A manual tracing method was used to calculate regional RSC volume in MRI scans from patients with bvFTD (n = 15) and AD (n = 15), as well as age- and sex-matched controls (n = 15). Results: RSC volumes were significantly reduced in the AD (p < 0.001), but not the bvFTD cohort (p > 0.1) compared to age-matched controls. RSC volumes discriminated bvFTD from AD in over 90% of the cases. Conclusion: These findings provide further evidence that RSC atrophy is specific to AD, which might explain the commonly observed spatial disorientation in this patient group.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)177-182
Number of pages6
JournalDementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders
Volume35
Issue number3-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • BA29
  • Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
  • Retrosplenial cortex
  • Volumetric tracing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Retrosplenial cortex (BA 29) volumes in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and alzheimer's disease'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this