Skip to main content

Part of the book series: Topics in Neuroscience ((TOPNEURO))

  • 1330 Accesses

Abstract

Clinical trials of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) traditionally use rating scales, such as neuropsychological tests, and disability scales as outcome measures. However, their intrinsic measurement variability, the slow disease progression, and the low efficacy of the drugs developed so far have led to trial designs with hundreds of subjects per treatment arm. The development of imaging markers with proven sensitivity to disease progression has recently paved the way for their use as outcome measures in clinical trials. The use of imaging measures has the double advantage of decreasing the number of subjects per treatment arm whilst also providing a direct measure of the degree of disease modification induced by the “active” molecules. A number of magnetic resonance (MR)-based markers have been developed for clinical trials of AD, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here, the most often used techniques, which could easily be exported to the study of neurodegeneration in clinical trials of multiple sclerosis, are reviewed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Laakso MP, Partanen K, Riekkinen P et al (1996) Hippocampal volumes in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease with and without dementia, and in vascular dementia: an MRI study. Neurology 46:678–681

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Laakso MP, Soininen H, Partanen K et al (1998) MRI of the hippocampus in Alzheimer’s disease: sensitivity, specificity, and analysis of the incorrectly classified subjects. Neurobiol Aging 19:23–31

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jack CR, Jr, Petersen RC, Xu YC et al (1999) Prediction of AD with MRI-based hippocampal volume in mild cognitive impairment. Neurology 52:1397–1403

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Jack CR, Jr, Petersen RC, Xu Y et al (2000) Rates of hippocampal atrophy correlate with change in clinical status in aging and AD. Neurology 55:484–489

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Fox NC, Freeborough PA (1997) Brain atrophy progression measured from registered serial MRI: validation and application to Alzheimer’s disease. J Magn Reson Imaging 7:1069–1075

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ashburner J, Csernansky JG, Davatzikos C et al (2003) Computer-assisted imaging to assess brain structure in healthy and diseased brains. Lancet Neurol 2:79–88

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Ashburner J, Friston KJ (2000) Voxel-based morphometry: the methods. Neuroimage 14:805–821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Thompson PM, Mega MS, Toga AW (2000) Disease-specific brain atlases. In: Toga AW, Mazziotta JC (eds) Brain mapping: the disorders. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp 131–177

    Google Scholar 

  9. Freeborough PA, Fox NC, Kitney RI (1997) Interactive algorithms for the segmentation and quantitation of 3-D MRI brain scans. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 53:15–25

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chetelat G, Landeau B, Eustache F et al (2005) Using voxel-based morphometry to map the structural changes associated with rapid conversion in MCI: a longitudinal MRI study. Neuroimage 27:934–946

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Thompson PM, Toga AW (1996) A surface-based technique for warping 3-dimensional images of the brain. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 15:1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Thompson PM, Hayashi KM, de Zubicaray G et al (2003) Dynamics of gray matter loss in Alzheimer’s disease. J Neurosci 23:994–1005

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Vidal CN, Rapoport JL, Hayashi KM et al (2006) Dynamically spreading frontal and cingulate deficits mapped in adolescents with schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiat 63:25–34

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Smith SM, De Stefano N, Jenkinson M, Matthews PM (2001) Normalized accurate measurement of longitudinal brain change. J Comput Assist Tomogr 25:466–475

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Resnick SM, Goldszal AF, Davatzikos C et al (2000) One-year age changes in MRI brain volumes in older adults. Cereb Cortex 10:464–472

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Davatzikos C, Resnick SM (1998) Sex differences in anatomic measures of interhemispheric connectivity: correlations with cognition in women but not in men. Cereb Cortex 8:635–640

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Fox NC, Black RS, Gilman S et al (2005) Effects of Aβ immunization (AN1792) on MRI measures of cerebral volume in Alzheimer disease. Neurology 64:1563–1572

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag Italia

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Frisoni, G.B. (2007). Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Filippi, M., Rovaris, M., Comi, G. (eds) Neurodegeneration in Multiple Sclerosis. Topics in Neuroscience. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0391-0_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0391-0_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Milano

  • Print ISBN: 978-88-470-0390-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-88-470-0391-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics