MRI assessment of the effect of age on hippocampus height in dogs

In human medicine hippocampal volume changes have been associated with neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Huntington’s diseases, epilepsy, schizophrenia and depression. Hippocampal volume reduction also occurs across the typical adult lifespan, but the magnitude of normal hippocampal age-related change is unclear. In veterinary medicine the relationship between progressive canine brain atrophy and aging has been documented in several post-mortem studies and with a variety of MRI techniques. Similarly to what has been observed in man, hippocampal atrophy plays a significant part in canine cerebral atrophy and can be considered an early marker of cerebral aging. The goals of this study were 1) to develop an easy method for measuring the hippocampus and 2) to determine whether the “decreased height” of hippocampus was related to brain aging in dogs.