Low Subicular Volume as an Indicator of Dementia-Risk Susceptibility in Old Age.

Introduction: Hippocampal atrophy is an established Alzheimer's Disease (AD) biomarker. Volume loss in specific subregions as measurable with ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may reflect earliest pathological alterations.
Methods: Data from positron emission tomography (PET) for estimation of cortical amyloid β (Aβ) and high-resolution 7 Tesla T1 MRI for assessment of hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed in 61 non-demented elderly individuals who were divided into risk-categories as defined by high levels of cortical Aβ and low performance in standardized episodic memory tasks.
Results: High cortical Aβ and low episodic memory interactively predicted subicular volume [ F (3,57) = 5.90, p = 0.018]. The combination of high cortical Aβ and low episodic memory was associated with significantly lower subicular volumes, when compared to participants with high episodic memory ( p = 0.004).
Discussion: Our results suggest that low subicular volume is linked to established indicators of AD risk, such as increased cortical Aβ and low episodic memory. Our data support subicular volume as a marker of dementia-risk susceptibility in old-aged non-demented persons.
Competing Interests: CH is an employee and a shareholder of Neurimmune. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2022 Kagerer, Schroeder, van Bergen, Schreiner, Meyer, Steininger, Vionnet, Gietl, Treyer, Buck, Pruessmann, Hock and Unschuld.)