ABSTRACT
Psychiatric disorders have always attracted a lot of attention from researchers due to the difficulties in their diagnoses and treatments. Molecular imaging, as an emerging technology, has played an important role in the researchers of various diseases. In recent years, molecular imaging techniques including magnetic resonance spectroscopy, nuclear medicine imaging, and fluorescence imaging have been widely used in the study of psychiatric disorders. This review will briefly summarize the progression of molecular imaging in psychiatric disorders.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between ApoE epsilon4 allele and hippocampal atrophy in patients with AD. METHODS: Using MRI-based volumetry technique and PCR-FRLP, the hippocampal volume and ApoE genotype of 34 AD patients were examined, and the difference in hippocampal volume between the ApoE epsilon4 positive AD group (n=17) and the ApoE epsilon4 negative AD group (n=17) was analyzed. The relationship between the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele and the hippocampal volume was also evaluated. RESULTS: The hippocampal volume of the ApoE epsilon4 positive AD group was significantly smaller than that of the ApoE epsilon4 negative AD group (t = 2.43, P < 0.05), and there was a negative relationship between the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele and the hippocampal volume (r(s) = -0.210, P = 0.0024). These implied: the more the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele a patient had, the smaller the hippocampal volume of the patient would be. CONCLUSION: In this study the relationship between ApoE epsilon4 allele and hippocampal atrophy of AD was noticeable and it might shed light on the possible role of ApoE epsilon4 in the pathogenesis of AD.