TY - JOUR
T1 - Hippocampus volume loss due to chronic heavy drinking
AU - Beresford, Thomas P.
AU - Arciniegas, David B.
AU - Alfers, Julie
AU - Clapp, Lori
AU - Martin, Brandon
AU - Du, Yiping
AU - Liu, Dengfeng
AU - Shen, Dinggang
AU - Davatzikos, Christos
PY - 2006/11
Y1 - 2006/11
N2 - Objective: No clear consensus exists regarding the effect of sustained, heavy drinking on hippocampal volume. Our prior work hypothesized significantly lowered total hippocampus volumes in heavy chronically drinking alcohol-dependent (AD) subjects compared with light-drinking nondependent control subjects matched for age and gender. Method: Using a series of applicable exclusion criteria culled from previous published studies, we measured hippocampal volumes from MRI scan data acquired on a 3T scanner and subjected those data to automated volume analysis blind to the drinking history. Results: Comparison with AD test (n=8) and non-AD control (n=8) subjects found significant lessening in total (p=0.020) and left (p=0.010) hippocampal volumes with a near-significant difference on the right (p=0.051). Linear regression demonstrated that neither total brain volume nor intracranial volume affected the hippocampus measures. Conclusions: These data support the view that heavy drinking exerts a unique and selectively injurious effect on the hippocampus. Further study in larger samples must verify this in a search for possible mechanisms of injury.
AB - Objective: No clear consensus exists regarding the effect of sustained, heavy drinking on hippocampal volume. Our prior work hypothesized significantly lowered total hippocampus volumes in heavy chronically drinking alcohol-dependent (AD) subjects compared with light-drinking nondependent control subjects matched for age and gender. Method: Using a series of applicable exclusion criteria culled from previous published studies, we measured hippocampal volumes from MRI scan data acquired on a 3T scanner and subjected those data to automated volume analysis blind to the drinking history. Results: Comparison with AD test (n=8) and non-AD control (n=8) subjects found significant lessening in total (p=0.020) and left (p=0.010) hippocampal volumes with a near-significant difference on the right (p=0.051). Linear regression demonstrated that neither total brain volume nor intracranial volume affected the hippocampus measures. Conclusions: These data support the view that heavy drinking exerts a unique and selectively injurious effect on the hippocampus. Further study in larger samples must verify this in a search for possible mechanisms of injury.
KW - Alcohol Drinking
KW - Hippocampus
KW - MRI Scan
KW - Volume Loss
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33750337766&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33750337766&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2006.00223.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2006.00223.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 17067350
AN - SCOPUS:33750337766
VL - 30
SP - 1866
EP - 1870
JO - Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
JF - Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
SN - 0145-6008
IS - 11
ER -