Identification of hippocampal cortical microinfarcts on postmortem 3-T magnetic resonance imaging

Cortical microinfarcts (CMI) are increasingly recognized in the neurological community as a biomarker related to cognitive impairment and dementia. If their radiological depiction has been largely described in experimental settings using ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), less is known about their visibility on routinely used 3-T MRI. In this radiologic-pathologic correlation study, using 3-T post-mortem MRI, we searched for hippocampal CMI, in a double-blinded fashion, and found that only 4/36, or 11%, were clearly demonstrated on both radiological and histopathological exams.