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Title: Occasional Memory Loss Tied to Lower Brain Volume
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/22E54A.htm
Doctor's Guide
October 7, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn -- October 7, 2008 -- People with occasional memory loss may have a loss of brain volume, even though they don't have memory deficits on regular tests of memory or dementia, according to a study published in the October 7 issue of Neurology.

The study involved 500 people aged 50 to 85 years with no dementia who lived in the Netherlands. Participants were asked about occasional memory problems, such as having trouble thinking of the right word or forgetting things that happened in the last day or two, or thinking problems, such as having trouble concentrating or thinking more slowly than they used to. Participant's brains were scanned to measure the size of the hippocampus.

Of the 500 people, 453 reported that they had occasional subjective memory problems, because they would not show up on regular tests of memory and thinking skills.

The study found that in people with occasional subjective memory problems, the hippocampus was smaller than in people who had no memory problems. On average, the hippocampus had a volume of 6.7 millilitres in those with occasional subjective memory problems, compared to 7.1 millilitres in people with no memory problems.

"These occasional, subjective memory complaints could be the earliest sign of problems with memory and thinking skills and we were able to discover that these subjective memory complaints were linked to smaller brain volumes," said study author Frank-Erik de Leeuw, MD, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands. "Because occasional memory lapses were so common, though, much more work needs to be done to use such complaints diagnostically."

All of the participants also had white matter lesions in their brains. The researchers measured the amount of white matter lesions, and found that the amount of lesions was not tied to occasional memory problems.

The participants had all visited a neurology outpatient clinic not because of memory complaints but for reasons such as falls, vertigo, chronic head pain, or mild traumatic brain injury.

"To further strengthen the possible connection between the subjective memory complaints, size of hippocampus, and the development of Alzheimer's disease in all of the participants will be investigated again within the coming years," said Dr. de Leeuw.

SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology

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