Neuroimaging Markers for Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)

Lee, Jun Young

Abstract

To find the neuroimaging markers which have high validity to diagnose Alzheimer's disease and to predict conversion of MCI or normal control to AD, I reviewed papers based on Alzheimer"s disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) which goal is to collect and validate data such as MRI and PET images, cerebral spinal fluid, and blood biomarkersto define the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Brain imaging markers have the high accuracy to differentiate Alzheimer's disease from normal aging, but low accuracy to differentiate mild cognitive impairment from normal aging. Hippocampal volume is the most accurate to differentiate Alzheimer's disease from normal aging in single region of interest analysis. Entorhinal cortical volume is more accurate to differentiate mild cognitive impairment from normal aging. Multi-brain area analysis is more accurate to diagnose Alzheimer's disease or to predict Alzheimer's disease conversion than single brain area analysis. Multimodal analysis of FDG PET and MRI can predict dementia conversion in mild cognitive impairment group. Smaller sample size is needed to test the efficacy of dementia drug when using hippocampal or entorhinal cortical volume than using ADAS-cog.