PET with flutemetamol for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer ' s disease dementia and other dementias in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

F-flutemetamol uptake by brain tissue, measured by positron emission tomography (PET), is accepted by regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicine Agencies (EMA) for assessing amyloid load in people with dementia. Its added value is mainly demonstrated by excluding Alzheimer ' s pathology in an established dementia diagnosis. However, the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer ' s Association (NIA-AA) revised the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer ' s disease and the confidence in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer ' s disease may be increased when using some amyloid biomarkers tests like F-flutemetamol. These tests, added to the MCI core clinical criteria, might increase the diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) of a testing strategy. However, the DTA of F-flutemetamol to predict the progression from MCI to Alzheimer ' s disease dementia (ADD) or other dementias has not yet been systematically evaluated. To determine the DTA of the F-flutemetamol PET scan for detecting people with MCI at time of performing the test who will clinically progress to ADD, other forms of dementia (non-ADD) or any form of dementia at follow-up.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news