MRI解析の進歩

The Application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Alzheimer's Disease

アルツハイマー病においてMRIは早期診断，鑑別診断，および進行度評価に必須の検査法となっている。構造評価においては，視覚に頼らないコンピュータによる萎縮の自動診断が日常臨床で可能である。さらに内側側頭部の亜区域体積測定や精度の高い縦断体積測定が可能となり，治験におけるサンプルサイズの算出などに役立つ。また，局所的な萎縮を捉えるばかりでなく，グラフ理論により脳内ネットワークを評価することができる。

Abstract

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is essential for early diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and evaluation of disease progression. In structural MRI, the automatic diagnosis of atrophy by computers, even when it is not visually noticeable, is possible in daily clinical practice. Furthermore, subfield volumetric measurements of the medial temporal structures, as well as longitudinal volume measurements with high accuracy, have been developed and are useful for calculating the needed sample size in clinical trials. In addition to detecting local atrophy, graph theory has been applied to structural MRI for evaluation of alterations of the brain networks potentially affected in AD.