Current Challenges for the Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease: Brain Imaging and CSF Studies.

Publication Type	Academic Article
Authors	Mistur R, Mosconi L, Santi S, Guzman M, Li Y, Tsui W, de Leon M
Journal	J Clin Neurol
Volume	5
Issue	4
Pagination	153-66
Date Published	12/31/2009
ISSN	2005-5013
Abstract	The development of prevention therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) would greatly benefit from biomarkers that are sensitive to the subtle brain changes that occur in the preclinical stage of the disease. Reductions in the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc), a measure of neuronal function, have proven to be a promising tool in the early diagnosis of AD. In vivo brain 2-[(18)F]fluoro-2-Deoxy-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging demonstrates consistent and progressive CMRglc reductions in AD patients, the extent and topography of which correlate with symptom severity. There is increasing evidence that hypometabolism appears during the preclinical stages of AD and can predict decline years before the onset of symptoms. This review will give an overview of FDG-PET results in individuals at risk for developing dementia, including: presymptomatic individuals carrying mutations responsible for early-onset familial AD; patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), often a prodrome to late-onset sporadic AD; non-demented carriers of the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) epsilon4 allele, a strong genetic risk factor for late-onset AD; cognitively normal subjects with a family history of AD; subjects with subjective memory complaints; and normal elderly followed longitudinally until they expressed the clinical symptoms and received post-mortem confirmation of AD. Finally, we will discuss the potential to combine different PET tracers and CSF markers of pathology to improve the early detection of AD.
DOI	10.3988/jcn.2009.5.4.153
PubMed ID	20076796
PubMed Central ID	PMC2806537