The new technique outperformed traditional PET.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with memory deficits usually progresses to Alzheimer disease (AD) over the course of a decade. Although various brain imaging techniques can detect AD with reasonable accuracy, AD remains a clinical and, ultimately, a pathologic diagnosis. MCI also is a clinical diagnosis in which imaging has not proved very helpful.
A UCLA team has developed a positron-emission tomography scanning technique using a molecule that attaches to β-amyloid and tau, components of the plaques and tangles seen in both MCI and AD. Of 737 volunteers, 83 were finally included in the analysis. By conventional criteria, 25 had AD, 28 had MCI, and 30 were healthy. All subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography to a…