Abstract
Objectives
Positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) is an emerging hybrid imaging system in clinical nuclear medicine. Research demonstrates a comparative utility to current unimodal and hybrid methods, including positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT), in several medical subspecialities such as neuroimaging. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate the literature from 2016 to 2021 using PET/MRI for the investigation of patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and discuss the evidence base for widening its application into clinical practice.
Methods
A comprehensive literature search using the PubMed database was conducted to retrieve studies using PET/MRI in relation to the topics of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or Alzheimer's disease between January 2016 and January 2021. This search strategy enabled studies on all dementia types to be included in the analysis. Studies were required to have a minimum of 10 human subjects and incorporate simultaneous PET/MRI.
Results
A total of 116 papers were retrieved, with 39 papers included in the final selection. These were broadly categorised into reviews (12), technical/methodological papers (11), and new data studies (16). For the current review, discussion focused on findings from the new data studies.
Conclusions
PET/MRI offers additional insight into the underlying anatomical, metabolic, and functional changes associated with dementia when compared with unimodal methods and PET/CT, particularly relating to brain regions including the hippocampus and default mode network. Furthermore, the improved diagnostic utility of PET/MRI, as reported by radiologists, offers improved classification of dementia patients, with important implications for clinical management.
Positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) is an emerging hybrid imaging system in clinical nuclear medicine. Research demonstrates a comparative utility to current unimodal and hybrid methods, including positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT), in several medical subspecialities such as neuroimaging. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate the literature from 2016 to 2021 using PET/MRI for the investigation of patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and discuss the evidence base for widening its application into clinical practice.
Methods
A comprehensive literature search using the PubMed database was conducted to retrieve studies using PET/MRI in relation to the topics of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or Alzheimer's disease between January 2016 and January 2021. This search strategy enabled studies on all dementia types to be included in the analysis. Studies were required to have a minimum of 10 human subjects and incorporate simultaneous PET/MRI.
Results
A total of 116 papers were retrieved, with 39 papers included in the final selection. These were broadly categorised into reviews (12), technical/methodological papers (11), and new data studies (16). For the current review, discussion focused on findings from the new data studies.
Conclusions
PET/MRI offers additional insight into the underlying anatomical, metabolic, and functional changes associated with dementia when compared with unimodal methods and PET/CT, particularly relating to brain regions including the hippocampus and default mode network. Furthermore, the improved diagnostic utility of PET/MRI, as reported by radiologists, offers improved classification of dementia patients, with important implications for clinical management.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1501-1513 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | 12 Jun 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Oct 2021 |
Bibliographical note
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis study is supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.
Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease
- dementia
- hybrid imaging
- magnetic resonance imaging
- mild cognitive impairment
- neuroimaging
- PET/MRI
- positron emission tomography
Access to Document
- Lorking_etal_IJGP_The_Use_Of_VoR
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2021 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/