Entorhinal and transentorhinal atrophy in mild cognitive impairment using longitudinal diffeomorphometry

Introduction Autopsy findings have shown the entorhinal cortex and transentorhinal cortex are among the earliest sites of accumulation of pathology in patients developing Alzheimer's disease. Methods Here, we study this region in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (n = 36) and in control subjects (n = 16). The cortical areas are manually segmented, and local volume and shape changes are quantified using diffeomorphometry, including a novel mapping procedure that reduces variability in anatomic definitions over time. Results We find significant thickness and volume changes localized to the transentorhinal cortex through high field strength atlasing. Discussion This demonstrates that in vivo neuroimaging biomarkers can detect these early changes among subjects with mild cognitive impairment.