Reliability of volumetric measures of mesial temporal structures
Marchetti, R.L.; Bottino, Cássio.M.C.; Azevedo, Dísio.; Marie, S.K.Nagahashi.; de Castro, Cáudio.C.
Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 60(2-B): 420-428
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-282X PMID: 12131944 Document Number: 550752
The development of reliable techniques for volumetric measurement of mesial temporal structures (amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide data for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders, mainly temporal lobe epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. We investigated these techniques performing intraobserver and interobserver reliability study concerning normal controls, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease patients using the intra-class correlation coefficient. Intra-observer reliability of evaluated structures ranged from 0.93 to 0.99 (p<0.001). Inter-observer reliability ranged from 0.70 to 0.95 (p < or = 0.001). The results suggest that the technique of MRI morphometry of mesial temporal regions can be considered a reliable tool which may help in the investigation of neuropsychiatric disorders, since used by adequately trained clinicians and researchers.