Magnetic resonance imaging has been used routinely in the past to ensure diagnostic accuracy by ruling out stroke and other structural causes of cognitive impairment. Present technology, however, allows volumetric measurements of brain structures to be performed during the course of a trial that may serve additional purposes. Volumetric measurements obtained at the inception of a trial provide indices of whole brain and regional atrophy that relate to the fundamental pathology of the disease process. They offer an alternative approach to cognitive and clinical assessments for staging patients. They may be helpful in predicting disease progression and serve as potentially important explanatory covariates in efficacy analyses of therapeutic agents.
Serial MRI volumetric measurements performed over the course of a trial permit investigators to directly monitor volume loss resulting from ongoing pathology, and may help distinguish whether a therapeutic agent has symptomatic or diseasemodifying effects.
The relationships found so far between the hippocampal volume and the clinical assessments obtained in participants upon entering the MCI trial further point to the utility of MRI volumetric analysis as a valuable indicator of disease severity. They suggest that even within the relatively narrow continuum of MCI participants, MRI volumetric analysis can discriminate between participants on the basis of their performance on neuropsychological and clinical evaluations. These encouraging results support the contention that baseline MRI volumetric analysis may predict subsequent conversion to AD and be useful for measuring the effects of treatment.
Serial MRI volumetric measurements performed over the course of a trial permit investigators to directly monitor volume loss resulting from ongoing pathology, and may help distinguish whether a therapeutic agent has symptomatic or diseasemodifying effects.
The relationships found so far between the hippocampal volume and the clinical assessments obtained in participants upon entering the MCI trial further point to the utility of MRI volumetric analysis as a valuable indicator of disease severity. They suggest that even within the relatively narrow continuum of MCI participants, MRI volumetric analysis can discriminate between participants on the basis of their performance on neuropsychological and clinical evaluations. These encouraging results support the contention that baseline MRI volumetric analysis may predict subsequent conversion to AD and be useful for measuring the effects of treatment.
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