Early diagnosis of dementia-related pathology through imaging is the focus of my research program. Decreased glucose metabolism in the temporal and parietal lobes on [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET is recognized as an early imaging marker for the Alzheimer disease  (AD) pathology.

Neuroimaging markers of AD pathology would allow new therapies to be developed more quickly and increase the probability of success in clinical trials. An important clinical group for early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer disease are people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, who are at a higher risk of developing AD than their cognitively normal peers. FDG-PET is being recognized as an early diagnostic marker for AD pathology in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. In this study, we demonstrated that the pattern of glucose metabolic abnormalities in amnestic mild cognitive impairment is modified by age. Age of an individual is an important consideration when interpreting FDG-PET findings for early diagnosis of AD.

Since our publication and a few other publications on the effects of age on imaging findings associated with AD, investigators are paying more attention to the age of the cohorts and investigating the modifying effects of age in their findings.

We are investigating whether glucose metabolic abnormalities predict progression to mild cognitive impairment and AD in cognitively normal older adults, and whether structural changes on MRI such as hippocampal atrophy or biochemical changes (eg, a decrease in the neuronal metabolite N-acetylaspartate on MR spectroscopy) can be complementary

to FDG-PET in identifying cognitively normal individuals who are at a high risk for AD.

We are planning to present new findings in Radiology and Neurology, conferences, and journals.

 

Read this article at AJNR.org . . .