Incident Cerebral Microbleeds Detected by Susceptibility Weight-Imaging Help to Identify Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment Progressing to Alzheimer's Disease.
J Alzheimers Dis 2018;
60:253-262. [PMID:
28826188 DOI:
10.3233/jad-170470]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The relationship between cerebral microbleeds (CMB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not yet been clearly determined, particularly with susceptibility weight-imaging (SWI).
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the SWI sequence using 3T MRI for the detection of CMB, and its ability to differentiate elderly control subjects (CS), stable mild cognitive impairment patients (MCI-s), MCI patients progressing to AD (MCI-p), and AD patients.
METHODS
It was a prospective, monocentric, observational study that took place in Toulouse, France. Participants were 65 years and older, enrolled in three groups: CS, MCI, and AD. Based on the longitudinal analysis of cognitive decline, MCI subjects were retrospectively classified as MCI-s or MCI-p. Each patient had a 4-year follow-up with MRI at baseline (MRI#1) and during the fourth year (MRI#3). CMB were counted on native SWI images juxtaposed to minIP reformatted images.
RESULTS
150 patients were enrolled: 48 CS, 25 MCI-s, 18 MCI-p, 59 AD. At MRI#1 and at MRI#3, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of CMB between groups (p = 0.75 and p = 0.87). In the MCI-p + AD group, significantly more subjects had≥4 incident CMB compared to the CS + MCI-s group (p = 0.016). In the MCI-p + AD group, the prevalence of patients with >4 CMB was significantly higher at MRI#3 than at MRI#1 (p = 0.008).
CONCLUSION
Using SWI, AD and MCI-p patients had developed significantly more new CMB than CS and MCI-s patients during the follow-up. Incident CMB might be suggested as a potential imaging marker of AD progression.
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