Biomarcadores

Área de la Ciencia:

• Neuroscience
• Radiology
• Gerontology

Sus antecedentes:

• The HearCog trial investigated hearing aid effects on age-related hearing loss and cognitive impairment.
• A substudy used 18F-FDG PET/CT to assess brain metabolism changes after early versus delayed hearing aid intervention.

Objetivo del estudio:

• To evaluate brain metabolic activity patterns using 18F-FDG PET/CT.
• To compare metabolic changes between early (Group A) and delayed (Group B) hearing aid intervention groups.

Principales métodos:

• 28 participants (mean age 77.4 years) underwent baseline and 12-month 18F-FDG PET/CT scans.
• Analysis involved co-registration with a healthy volunteer database (n=33) and automated brain region labeling.
• Statistical testing compared group differences and database comparisons at both timepoints.

Principales resultados:

• No significant baseline differences between groups in demographics or imaging parameters.
• Early intervention (Group A) showed increased 18F-FDG uptake in 5 brain regions compared to delayed intervention (Group B) at 12 months.
• Affected regions included central, left central, right rolandic operculum, left paracentral lobule, and left precentral gyrus.

Conclusiones:

• Standardized analysis indicates relative improvements in motor/sensorimotor brain areas with early hearing aid intervention.
• Further research integrating MRI and PET data is planned for detailed evaluation of cognitive and auditory regions.