Interthalamic adhesion and Alzheimer’s

Preliminary study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Identifying the prevalence and dimensions of the Interthalamic Adhesion (ITA) in corpses from the “Serviço de Verificação de Óbitos da Capital - USP”, considering factors as age, sex, weight, height, and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). METHODS: Fifty-seven corpses (31M/26F) were included in the study. The mean age was 66.2 (varying between 15 and 91). The analysis of the ITA was made after the encephalon’s removal from its cavity, which occurred by the transversal section of the skullcap, and, next, an axial incision in the inferior limit of the pons to separate the encephalon from the spinal cord. Fifty-four encephalons were submitted to medial sagittal incisions, two encephalons were submitted to axial cuts and one to a coronal section. Quantitative data were compared by the Student’s T Test, and qualitative data by the Chi-squared test. The Age vs Area analysis was made by linear regression. RESULTS: the prevalence of the ITA was 79%, not having differences in prevalence between sexes (p=0.68). Advanced ages presented lower areas in sagittal sections (p= 0.02). It does not appear to have a significant alteration in prevalence of the ITA and transversal section aerea in patients with AD. DISCUSSION: Unlike previous studies which observed higher prevalence and size of the ITA in females, differences in this parameters were not obtained in this study. Evidence of correlation between AD and lower sagittal section of the ITA, even without statistic significance, points to the need of further studies.