Hippocampal MRI signatures across Alzheimer's stages: a multimodal review

Six MRI techniques—structural, diffusion tensor, spectroscopy, quantitative susceptibility mapping, arterial spin labeling, and functional MRI—characterize hippocampal damage across Alzheimer's stages; combining them with machine learning improves early screening and prognosis.

• The review covers what each modality adds: atrophy (structural MRI), microstructural injury (diffusion tensor imaging), metabolism (spectroscopy), iron (quantitative susceptibility mapping), perfusion (arterial spin labeling), and activity (functional MRI).
• Hippocampal injury shows subfield specificity, hemispheric asymmetry, and stage-dependent progression, influenced by amyloid/tau, neuroinflammation, and APOE ε4.
• Multimodal fusion with machine learning outperforms single-modal biomarkers, but pathological validation and reproducibility remain challenges.

Automated summary

RadPigeon summaries are original and for information only. They are not clinical advice.