title: Visual rating method and tensor-based morphometry in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: a comparative magnetic resonance imaging study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Atrophy of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is the main structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) finding in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, evaluating the degree of atrophy is still demanding.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The visual rating method (VRM) was compared with multi-template tensor-based morphometry (TBM), in terms of its efficacy in diagnosing of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-seven patients with MCI, 80 patients with AD and 84 controls were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TBM seems to be more sensitive than VRM at the early stage of dementia in the areas of MTL and ventricles. The methods were equally good in distinguishing controls and the MCI group from the AD group. At the frontal areas TBM was better than VRM in all comparisons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A user-friendly VRM is still useful for the clinical evaluation of MCI patients, but multi-template TBM is more sensitive for diagnosing the early stages of dementia. However, TBM is currently too demanding to use for daily clinical work.
authors.affiliation: Turku PET Centre, Turku University Hospital, Finland University of Turku, Turku, Finland terhi.tuokkola@tyks.fi.
authors.forename: Terhi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tuokkola
authors.affiliation: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koikkalainen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: Riitta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parkkola
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Mira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karrasch
authors.affiliation: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Jyrki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lötjönen
authors.affiliation: Turku PET Centre, Turku University Hospital, Finland Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Rinne
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Visual rating; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); mild cognitive impairment; tensor-based morphometry