LOW BODY-WEIGHT IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE IS ASSOCIATED WITH MESIAL TEMPORAL CORTEX ATROPHY

There are reports of weight loss and low body mass index (BMI) in pati ents with AD. The mesial temporal cortex (MTC)is involved in feeding b ehavior and memory and is preferentially involved in AD. We studied 74 subjects, including 58 AD patients and 16 control subjects, to determ ine whether BMI is associated with atrophy of the MTC or-other brain r egions. We used MRI morphometric analysis to provide measures of regio nal brain atrophy. AD patients had significant brain atrophy in all me asured brain regions, except the white matter, compared with normal co ntrol subjects. The MTC was the only brain region significantly associ ated with BMI in AD patients (r = 0.39, p = 0.003). Multiple-regressio n analysis indicated that addition of brain regions other than the MTC to the model did not significantly add to the prediction of BMI. We c onclude that low BMI correlates best and specifically with MTC atrophy . This finding supports a connection between limbic system damage and low body weight in AD.