Electroencephalography Is a Good Complement to Currently Established Dementia Biomarkers

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomarker Discovery

Background:

• Accessible dementia biomarkers are crucial for non-specialized clinical settings.
• Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) and statistical pattern recognition (SPR) show potential.
• Current diagnostic tools include cognition, imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic value of qEEG-SPR compared to existing dementia biomarkers.
• To assess the utility of qEEG-SPR in differentiating various dementia types, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson's disease with dementia (DLB/PDD).

Main Methods:

• Recruited 511 individuals across a spectrum of cognitive health, including healthy controls, subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, AD, DLB/PDD, and other dementias.
• Standardized electroencephalography (EEG) data acquisition.
• Visual rating of structural imaging for atrophy and comparison with qEEG-SPR, cognitive tests, and CSF biomarkers.

Main Results:

• qEEG-SPR demonstrated superior diagnostic performance for DLB/PDD compared to structural imaging, cognition, and CSF biomarkers.
• qEEG-SPR outperformed structural imaging in AD diagnosis and improved the differential diagnosis of AD.
• The method successfully differentiated two distinct subtypes of AD.

Conclusions:

• qEEG integration into diagnostic workups significantly enhances the detection of AD pathology, even in pre-dementia stages.
• qEEG serves as a cost-effective, non-invasive complement to established dementia biomarkers.
• qEEG-SPR offers improved differential diagnosis capabilities for various neurodegenerative conditions.