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Early identification of MCI converting to AD: a FDG PET study

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional pathological stage between normal ageing (NA) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although subjects with MCI show a decline at different rates, some individuals remain stable or even show an improvement in their cognitive level after some years. We assessed the accuracy of FDG PET in discriminating MCI patients who converted to AD from those who did not.

Methods

FDG PET was performed in 42 NA subjects, 27 MCI patients who had not converted to AD at 5 years (nc-MCI; mean follow-up time 7.5 ± 1.5 years), and 95 MCI patients who converted to AD within 5 years (MCI-AD; mean conversion time 1.8 ± 1.1 years). Relative FDG uptake values in 26 meta-volumes of interest were submitted to ANCOVA and support vector machine analyses to evaluate regional differences and discrimination accuracy.

Results

The MCI-AD group showed significantly lower FDG uptake values in the temporoparietal cortex than the other two groups. FDG uptake values in the nc-MCI group were similar to those in the NA group. Support vector machine analysis discriminated nc-MCI from MCI-AD patients with an accuracy of 89% (AUC 0.91), correctly detecting 93% of the nc-MCI patients.

Conclusion

In MCI patients not converting to AD within a minimum follow-up time of 5 years and MCI patients converting within 5 years, baseline FDG PET and volume-based analysis identified those who converted with an accuracy of 89%. However, further analysis is needed in patients with amnestic MCI who convert to a dementia other than AD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms. Katja Gasperini for helping with the English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Via Palestro 32, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Marco Pagani

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Karolinska Hospital Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

    Marco Pagani

  3. Clinical Neurology, Department of Neuroscience (DINOGMI), University of Genoa and IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy

    Flavio Nobili, Dario Arnaldi, Nicola Girtler, Andrea Brugnolo & Agnese Picco

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Health Science (DISSAL), University of Genoa and IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy

    Silvia Morbelli, Matteo Bauckneht, Roberta Piva & Gianmario Sambuceti

  5. Environment and Health Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    Alessandro Giuliani

  6. Department of Hospital Physics, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johanna Öberg

  7. Clinical Psychology, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy

    Nicola Girtler

  8. National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Genoa section, Genoa, Italy

    Andrea Chincarini

  9. Medical Radiation Physics and Nuclear Medicine, Imaging and Physiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Cathrine Jonsson

  10. Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology, CNR - Genoa Unit, AOU San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy

    Fabrizio De Carli

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  1. Marco Pagani
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Correspondence to Marco Pagani.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the principles of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards

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Pagani, M., Nobili, F., Morbelli, S. et al. Early identification of MCI converting to AD: a FDG PET study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 44, 2042–2052 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3761-x

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