Perfusion abnormalities in mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia in Alzheimer's disease measured by pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI

Panagiotis Alexopoulos, Christian Sorg, Annette Förschler, Timo Grimmer, Maria Skokou, Afra Wohlschläger, Robert Perneczky, Claus Zimmer, Alexander Kurz, Christine Preibisch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

111 Scopus citations

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the transitional clinical stage between cognition in normal aging and dementia, have been linked to abnormalities in brain perfusion. Pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for evaluating brain perfusion. The present study aimed to determine regional perfusion abnormalities in 19 patients with mild dementia in AD and 24 patients with MCI as compared to 24 cognitively healthy elderly controls using PASL. In line with nuclear imaging methods, lower perfusion in patients with MCI and AD was found mainly in the parietal lobe, but also in angular and middle temporal areas as well as in the left middle occipital lobe and precuneus. Our data imply that PASL may be a valuable instrument for investigating perfusion changes in the transition from normal aging to dementia and indicate that it might become an alternative to nuclear imaging techniques in AD diagnostics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)69-77
Number of pages9
JournalEuropean Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Volume262
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2012

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Cerebral blood flow (CBF)
  • Mild cognitive impairment
  • Pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL)

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