Predicting Alzheimer Disease with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Thinner cortex in specific brain regions was associated with deterioration from normal cognition to Alzheimer disease in two separate cohorts of elders.

Identifying individuals who are likely to develop Alzheimer disease (AD) will become important with the potential development of therapies that need to be applied early to be effective. Numerous biomarkers of dementia have been studied, with varying predictive power.

Now, investigators have assessed the value of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for predicting AD in two similar cohorts of cognitively normal seniors (N=65; mean age, 74) whom they followed prospectively for about a decade. The researchers hypothesized that MRI-assessed cortical thickness might predict AD dementia, specifically in brain regions that are affected by AD.

At baseline, cortex in those regions was significantly thinner in the 15 people who later developed A…

Reviewing Author

William J. Jagust, MD

Predicting Alzheimer Disease with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Reviewing Author