According to researchers at Duke Medicine, Alzheimer's in patients with mild cognitive impairment can be detected at an early stage by studying a combination of imaging and biomarker tests, says a report published in Medical Xpress.
Researchers at Duke Medicine studied three tests: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and cerebrospinal fluid analysis in order to find out if the combination of these tests provided more accuracy than individual tests.
"This study marks the first time these diagnostic tests have been used together to help predict the progression of Alzheimer's. If you use all three biomarkers, you get a benefit above that of the pencil-and-paper neuropsychological tests used by doctors today," said Jeffrey Petrella, MD, associate professor of radiology at Duke Medicine and study author, according to Medical Xpress. "Each of these tests adds new information by looking at Alzheimer's from a different angle."
Alzheimer's disease, which currently has no cure, affects more than 30 million people worldwide and it is likely to increase three times more by 2050, said a report in Medical Xpress. Researchers suggest that diagnosing this disease may take years or decades, with patients suffering with some memory loss or mild cognitive impairment before its full onset. New treatments under study have some significant effect at the disease's early stages, and researchers are finding ways to diagnose Alzheimer's at its earliest for its better treatment.
"Misdiagnosis in very early stages of Alzheimer's is a significant problem, as there are more than 100 conditions that can mimic the disease. In people with mild memory complaints, our accuracy is barely better than chance. Given that the definitive gold standard for diagnosing Alzheimer's is autopsy, we need a better way to look into the brain," said P. Murali Doraiswamy, MBBS, professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke and study author, reports Medical Xpress.
Patients are often misclassified as it is very difficult to accurately diagnose the disease. The Duke researchers studied data from 97 older adults with mild cognitive impairment Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a national study that collects data in hundreds of elderly patients with varying levels of cognitive impairment, according to Medical Xpress. Patients underwent clinical cognitive testing and three diagnostic exams: MRI, FDG-PET, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. The misclassification rate based on neuropsychological testing was at 41.3 percent, whereas studying the combination of these tests lowered the rate of misclassification to 28.4 percent.
These findings are published in the December edition of the journal Radiology.
