Overview

Dementia affects about 50 million people worldwide. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and Dementia (VCID) are the two leading causes of dementia. Mixed pathologies (more than one cause) are prevalent in patients with dementia. Various PET and MR imaging biomarkers provide complementary information in studying dementia. As an example, we will demonstrate an association between PET measured neuroinflammation and MR measured white matter hyperintensity lesion burden. Moreover, we found that neuroinflammation predicted cognitive decline in a longitudinal follow-up study. Combined PET/MR imaging is well suited for studying dementia. Challenges in PET/MR attenuation correction (AC) have limited the inclusion of PET/MR in clinical trials. Recent deep-learning-based methods provide accurate PET/MR AC with high repeatability.

Target audience

- Scientists and clinicians who are interested in dementia imaging, particularly combined PET and MR neuroimaging.

Learning Objectives

- Provide an overview of various PET and MR imaging biomarkers for dementia
- Demonstrate an example of neuroinflammation imaging
- Provide update on PET/MR attenuation correction

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

No reference found.