Predictive Scale for Amyloid PET Positivity Based on Clinical and MRI Variables in Patients with Amnestic Mild...

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Neuroimaging
• Biomarkers

Background:

• Amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a key indicator for progression to Alzheimer's disease dementia.
• Amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) is effective for Aβ detection but limited by high costs.
• Accessible tools are needed to predict Aβ positivity in aMCI patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel predictive scale for identifying amyloid PET positivity in aMCI patients.
• To utilize easily accessible clinical and demographic variables for Aβ deposition prediction.
• To offer a cost-effective alternative to amyloid PET for aMCI assessment.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 161 aMCI patients from memory clinics for neuropsychological tests, MRI, APOE genotyping, and amyloid PET.
• Developed a predictive model using significant predictors: memory tests, medial temporal lobe atrophy, APOE genotype, and age.
• Validated the developed integer-based predictive scale in an independent cohort of 98 participants.

Main Results:

• The predictive model achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.856 for amyloid PET positivity.
• The final predictive scale demonstrated good performance in validation, with an AUC of 0.835.
• An optimal cutoff score of ≥ 3 was determined for the predictive scale.

Conclusions:

• A new, accessible predictive scale can effectively identify Aβ positivity in aMCI patients.
• This scale offers a practical and potentially cost-saving approach compared to amyloid PET.
• The validated scale may assist clinicians in predicting Alzheimer's disease progression risk in aMCI.