AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2009 Mar;30(3):532-8 doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1397. 2008 Dec 26.

Temporoparietal MR imaging measures of atrophy in subjects with mild cognitive impairment that predict subsequent diagnosis of Alzheimer disease

Desikan RS, Cabral HJ, Fischl B, Guttmann CR, Blacker D, Hyman BT, Albert MS, Killiany RJ.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a transitional state between normal aging and Alzheimer disease (AD). Our goal was to determine if specific temporoparietal regions can predict the time to progress from MCI to AD.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: MR images from 129 individuals with MCI were analyzed to identify the volume of 14 neocortical and 2 non-neocortical brain regions, comprising the temporal and parietal lobes. In addition, 3 neuropsychological test scores were included to determine whether they would provide independent information. After a mean follow-up time of 5 years, 44 of these individuals had progressed to a diagnosis of AD.
RESULTS: Cox proportional hazards models demonstrated significant effects for 6 MR imaging regions with the greatest differences being the following: the entorhinal cortex (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.54, P CONCLUSIONS: These findings reaffirm the importance of the entorhinal cortex and present evidence for the importance of the inferior parietal lobule as a predictor of time to progress from MCI to AD. The inclusion of neuropsychological performance in the final model continues to highlight the importance of using these measures in a complementary fashion.

PMID: 19112067