Early secondary changes and memory impairment of hippocampus after subcortical infarction in middle cerebral artery / 中风与神经疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

@#Abstract Objective　To observe the dynamic changes of hippocampus microstructure in patients with cerebral infarction within the territory of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) with cortex involvement,thus exploring the relationship between these changes and the changes in semantic memory function.Methods　Twenty-two patients with acute subcortical infarction were assessed for cognitive function,structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 1,4,and 12 weeks (W) respectively.A total of 22 gender and age matched subjects were enrolled as healthy controls.Results　Bilateral hippocampal volume did not change significantly during the entire follow-up period.Spearman’s rank correlations showed that percent decreases in immediate recall and long-delay recall scores correlated negatively with percent increases in mean diffusivity (MD) values in the ipsilateral hippocampus (immediate,rs=0.683,P=0.006; long-delay,rs=-0.602,P=0.013).Conclusion　In patients with cerebral infarction within the territory of the MCA with cortex involvement,the microstructural integrity of the hippocampus may be damaged before the macrostructure changes,and these changes may be related to the decline of semantic memory.