Relations of hippocampal subfields atrophy patterns with memory and biochemical changes in end stage renal disease

Abstract

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) results in hippocampal volume reduction, but the hippocampal subfields atrophy patterns cannot be identified. We explored the volumes and asymmetry of the hippocampal subfields and their relationships with memory function and biochemical changes. Hippocampal global and subfields volumes were derived from 33 ESRD patients and 46 healthy controls (HCs) from structural MRI. We compared the volume and asymmetric index of each subfield, with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to evaluate the differentiation between ESRD and HCs. The relations of hippocampal subfield volumes with memory performance and biochemical data were investigated in ESRD group. ESRD patients had smaller hippocampal subfield volumes, mainly in the left CA1 body, left fimbria, right molecular layer head, right molecular layer body and right HATA. The right molecular layer body exhibited the highest accuracy for differentiating ESRD from HCs, with a sensitivity of 80.43% and specificity of 72.73%. Worse learning process (r = 0.414, p = 0.032), immediate recall (r = 0.396, p = 0.041) and delayed recall (r = 0.482, p = 0.011) was associated with left fimbria atrophy. The left fimbria volume was positively correlated with Hb (r = 0.388, p = 0.05); the left CA1 body volume was negatively correlated with Urea (r = − 0.469, p = 0.016). ESRD patients showed global and hippocampal subfields atrophy. Left fimbria atrophy was related to memory function. Anemia and Urea level may be associated with the atrophy of left fimbria and CA1 body, respectively.

The covariant structural and functional neuro-correlates of cognitive impairments in patients with end-stage renal diseases

“…The medial temporal lobe is involved in both emotion and memory processes ( Gluth et al, 2015 ), and the memory network formed by the medial temporal lobe, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus in DMN plays a vital role in the coordination of episodic memory and scene-related cognitive functions ( Valenstein et al, 1987 ; Song et al, 2011 ). Several studies have shown atrophy in these brain regions in ESRD, leading to alterations in both the structure and function of the DMN ( Qiu et al, 2014 ; Zheng et al, 2022 ; Jiang et al, 2023 ). The parahippocampal gyrus is considered to establish the connection between the medial temporal lobe memory system and the DMN ( Ward et al, 2014 ), involved in transmitting information such as spatial details and memory encoding to the hippocampus.…”