title: Visual assessment of posterior atrophy development of a MRI rating scale.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a visual rating scale for posterior atrophy (PA) assessment and to analyse whether this scale aids in the discrimination between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias.
  
  
  METHODS
  Magnetic resonance imaging of 118 memory clinic patients were analysed for PA (range 0-3), medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) (range 0-4) and global cortical atrophy (range 0-3) by different raters. Weighted-kappas were calculated for inter- and intra-rater agreement. Relationships between PA and MTA with the MMSE and age were estimated with linear-regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intra-rater agreement ranged between 0.93 and 0.95 and inter-rater agreement between 0.65 and 0.84. Mean PA scores were higher in AD compared to controls (1.6  ±  0.9 and 0.6  ±  0.7, p  <  0.01), and other dementias (0.8 ± 0.8, p  <  0.01). PA was not associated with age compared to MTA (B = 1.1 (0.8) versus B = 3.1 (0.7), p  <  0.01)). PA and MTA were independently negatively associated with the MMSE (B = -1.6 (0.5), p  <  0.01 versus B = -1.4 (0.5), p  <  0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This robust and reproducible scale for PA assessment conveys independent information in a clinical setting and may be useful in the discrimination of AD from other dementias.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Centre, VU University Medical Centre, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. elge.koedam@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Esther L G E
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Koedam
authors.forename: Manja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: Wiesje M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: van der Flier
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scheltens
authors.forename: Yolande A L
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Pijnenburg
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barkhof
authors.forename: Mike P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Wattjes
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D001284:Atrophy / Q000175:diagnosis; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*