Diagnostic value of amygdala volume on structural magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer’s disease

BACKGROUND: The main clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is memory loss, which can be accompanied by neuropsychiatric symptoms at different stages of the disease. Amygdala is closely related to emotion and memory. AIM: To evaluate the diagnostic value of amygdala on structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) for AD. METHODS: In this study, 22 patients with AD and 26 controls were enrolled. Their amygdala volumes were measured by sMRI and analyzed using an automatic analysis software. RESULTS: The bilateral amygdala volumes of AD patients were significantly lower than those of the controls and were positively correlated with the hippocampal volumes. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed that the sensitivity of the left and right amygdala volumes in diagnosing AD was 80.8% and 88.5%, respectively. Subgroup analyses showed that amygdala atrophy was more serious in AD patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms, which mainly included irritability (22.73%), sleep difficulties (22.73%), apathy (18.18%), and hallucination (13.64%). CONCLUSION: Amygdala volumes measured by sMRI can be used to diagnose AD, and amygdala atrophy is more serious in patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms.