title: Brain imaging of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: The rapidly increasing prevalence of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease has the potential to create a major worldwide healthcare crisis. Structural MRI studies in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment are currently attracting considerable interest. It is extremely important to study early structural and metabolic changes, such as those in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and gray matter structures in the medial temporal lobe, to allow the early detection of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. The microstructural integrity of white matter can be studied with diffusion tensor imaging. Increased mean diffusivity and decreased fractional anisotropy are found in subjects with white matter damage. Functional imaging studies with positron emission tomography tracer compounds enable detection of amyloid plaques in the living brain in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In this review, we will focus on key findings from brain imaging studies in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, including structural brain changes studied with MRI and white matter changes seen with diffusion tensor imaging, and other specific imaging methodologies will also be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China ; Department of Neurology, Hongqi Hospital, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang 157004, Heilongjiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Changhao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hongqi Hospital, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang 157004, Heilongjiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Siou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hongqi Hospital, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang 157004, Heilongjiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Weina
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Jiachun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; diffusion tensor imaging; entorhinal cortex; fractional anisotropy; hippocampus; magnetic resonance imaging; mild cognitive impairment; neuorregeneration; neural regeneration; neuroimaging; photographs-containing paper