Early PET Scans Improve Confidence When Diagnosing Cognitive Problems

Adults who receive a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to measure brain amyloid levels shortly after seeing a doctor for cognitive problems are more likely to be confidently diagnosed within three months than those whose PET scans are delayed, suggests astudy published today inJAMA Neurology.“Amyloid deposition in the brain is one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer disease (AD) and is considered one of the strongest risk factors of dementia,” wrote Daniele Altomare, Ph.D., of Geneva Memory Center in Switzerland and colleagues. “This evidence from [the Amyloid Imaging to Prevent Al zheimer’s Disease Diagnostic and Patient Management Study] of the clinical effect of amyloid PET in a European memory clinic population suggests that widespread implementation of this imaging technique may improve the timely diagnostic workup of patients under evaluation for cognitive decline.”Altomare and colleagues enrolled 840 older adults (median age 71) from eight memory clinics across Europe in the study. The participants had varied stages of cognitive problems, ranging from subjective cognitive decline to mild cognitive impairment to dementia. The participants were then placed in one of three assessment groups:Group 1 participants received an amyloid PET scan within one month of their baseline clinical visit.Group 2 participants received an amyloid PET scan about eight months after their baseline visit.Group 3 participants received a PET scan at the direction of the physician ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer ' s disease amyloid dementia diagnosis JAMA Neurology mild cognitive impairment PET scan subjective cognitive decline Source Type: research