January 4, 2012 — Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure areas of the brain that are involved in Alzheimer’s disease may be a way of detecting the disease at its earliest preclinical stages, a new study suggests.
Cognitively normal adults for whom regions of the brain’s cortex were found to be smaller than those of their peers when examined with MRI were significantly more likely to develop symptoms of cognitive decline after 3 years, Bradford C. Dickerson, MD, from Harvard Medical School, Boston, and David A. Wolk, MD, from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, report.
"MRI cortical thickness, as a biomarker, is capable of detecting preclinical Alzheimer’s disease," Dr. Dickerson told Medscape Medical News. "These areas of the brain appear to be atrophic; they are smaller than they should be, and probably have shrunk in these individuals."/.../
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