Whole brain atrophy rate predicts progression from MCI to Alzheimer's disease.
For both clinical and research reasons, it is essential to identify which mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects subsequently progress to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The prediction may be facilitated by accelerated whole brain atrophy exhibited by AD subjects. Iterative principal component analysis (IPCA) was used to characterize whole brain atrophy rates using sequential MRI scans for 102 MCI subjects from the Kuopio University Hospital. We modelled the likelihood of progression to probable AD, and found that each additional percent of annualized whole brain atrophy rate was associated with a higher odds ratio (OR) of progression (OR=1.30, p=0.01, 95% CI=1.05-1.60). Our study demonstrates an association between whole brain atrophy rate and subsequent rate of clinical progression from MCI to AD. These findings suggest that IPCA could be an effective brain-imaging marker of progression to AD and useful tool for the evaluation of disease-modifying treatments.
Spulber
Gabriela
G
Institute of Clinical Medicine, Unit of Neurology, Kuopio University, Kuopio, Finland. gabriela.spulber@uku.fi
Niskanen
Eini
E
MacDonald
Stuart
S
Smilovici
Oded
O
Chen
Kewei
K
Reiman
Eric M
EM
Jauhiainen
Anne M
AM
Hallikainen
Merja
M
Tervo
Susanna
S
Wahlund
Lars-Olof
LO
Vanninen
Ritva
R
Kivipelto
Miia
M
Soininen
Hilkka
H
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity