Three-dimensional volumetric analysis and reconstruction of amygdala and hippocampal head, body and tail

Malykhin, Nikolai V.; Bouchard, Thomas P.; Ogilvie, Catherine J.; Coupland, Nicholas J.; Seres, Peter; Camicioli, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.11.011

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 155, Issue 2 , Pages 155-165, 15 July 2007

Three-dimensional volumetric analysis and reconstruction of amygdala and hippocampal head, body and tail

Nikolai V. Malykhin
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Walter MacKenzie Centre, 8440-112 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2B7
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 780 492 6016; fax: +1 780 407 6672.
Thomas P. Bouchard
- Division of Neurology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Catherine J. Ogilvie
- Department of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Nicholas J. Coupland
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Walter MacKenzie Centre, 8440-112 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2B7
Peter Seres
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Richard Camicioli
- Division of Neurology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Received 2 May 2006; received in revised form 14 September 2006; accepted 26 November 2006.

Abstract

Volumetric changes in the amygdala and hippocampus are relevant to many disorders, but their close proximity makes it difficult to separate these structures by magnetic resonance imaging, leading many volumetric protocols to exclude problematic slices from analysis, or to analyze the amygdalo–hippocampal complex conjointly. The hippocampus tail is also often excluded, because of the difficulty in separating it from the thalamus. We have developed a reliable protocol for volumetric analysis and 3-D reconstruction of the amygdala and hippocampus (as a whole and in its anatomical parts). Twenty volunteers from clinical and healthy populations were recruited. T1-weighted images were acquired at 1.5 Tesla with native spatial resolution of 1.5 mm×1.0 mm×1.0 mm. Volumetric analyses were performed blind to diagnosis, using the interactive software package DISPLAY. Inter-rater (intrarater) intraclass correlations for the method were: 0.95 (0.88) for hippocampus tail, 0.83 (0.93) for hippocampus body, 0.95 (0.92) for hippocampus head, 0.96 (0.86) for total hippocampus and 0.86 (0.94) for amygdala. Volumes (mean±S.D.) corrected for intracranial volume for this mixed group were for the hippocampal tail: 0.325±0.087 cm³; hippocampal body: 0.662±0.120 cm³; hippocampal head: 1.23±0.174 cm³; total hippocampus: 2.218±0.217 cm³, and amygdala: 0.808±0.185 cm³. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that the amygdala and hippocampal parts can be quantified reliably.