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Do the mammillary bodies atrophy with aging? A magnetic resonance imaging study

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Abstract

Purpose

This retrospective study aimed to explore age-related atrophy of the mammillary bodies (MBs) based on their temporal change using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials and methods

The study included 30 adult outpatients who presented to the hospital and were followed for more than 100 months with annual MRIs. The bi-ventricular width (BVW), third ventricle width (TVW), and bi-mammillary dimension (BMD) were measured on axial T2-weighted imaging and analyzed.

Results

The 30 patients comprised 1 in their 40s, 5 in their 50s, 6 in their 60s, 11 in their 70s, 5 in their 80s, and 2 in their 90s. The MBs were consistently detected with left-to-right symmetry. The mean BVW was 32 ± 2.2 mm on the initial (BVW1) and 32 ± 2.4 mm on the last (BVW2) MRI. The mean TVW was 7.0 ± 2.3 mm on the initial (TVW1) and 7.6 ± 2.7 mm on the last (TVW2) MRI. Furthermore, the mean BMD was 9.9 ± 1.3 mm on the initial (BMD1) and 10 ± 1.3 mm on the last (BMD2) MRI. Statistically, no age ranges had a large dimension for BVW1, BVW2, TVW1, TVW2, BMD1, or BMD2. Changes between TVW1 and TVW2 were significantly different in the patients in their 80s; changes between BMD1 and BMD2 were not different for any age range or between sexes.

Conclusions

Aging alone does not seem to promote MB atrophy. In healthy brains, the MBs may be stationary structures throughout life.

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Availability of data and materials

The data and materials used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request (Satoshi Tsutsumi).

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Funding

No funding was received for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological Surgery, Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital, 2-1-1 Tomioka, Urayasu, Chiba, 279-0021, Japan

    Satoshi Tsutsumi, Natsuki Sugiyama, Hideaki Ueno & Hisato Ishii

Authors
  1. Satoshi Tsutsumi
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  2. Natsuki Sugiyama
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  3. Hideaki Ueno
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  4. Hisato Ishii
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Contributions

ST conceived the study and wrote the manuscript. NS and HU collected the imaging data. ST and HI analyzed the imaging data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Satoshi Tsutsumi.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest of a financial or personal nature.

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All procedures in this study were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of an institutional and/or national research committee and the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study for their participation and publication of this article.

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Tsutsumi, S., Sugiyama, N., Ueno, H. et al. Do the mammillary bodies atrophy with aging? A magnetic resonance imaging study. Surg Radiol Anat 45, 1419–1425 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03205-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03205-9

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