Alzheimer Disease: van de Pol L

van de Pol L, Scheltens P. · No affiliation provided · J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. · Pubmed #15026488 links to  free full text

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Galluzzi S, Talassi E, Belussi M, Scheltens P, van de Pol L, Nobili F, Rodriguez G, Froelich L, Damian M, Martinez-Lage P, Gomez-Isla T, Reynish E, Ousset PJ, Vellas B, Frisoni GB. · LENITEM Laboratory of Epidemiology, Neuroimaging and Telemedicine, IRCCS Centro S. Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy. · Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. · Pubmed #18841016 No free full text.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To study multi-center variability of medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) recruited in a European observational study of AD. METHODS: 117 mild to moderate AD patients from 5 European centers (Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Brescia and Genova, Italy; Mannheim, Germany; Pamplona, Spain) had magnetic resonance imaging scans performed as part of the routine diagnostic examination. MTA was assessed with the visual Scheltens scale. RESULTS: AD patients from Brescia, Genova, Pamplona, and Mannheim had a mean 32% prevalence of no or borderline MTA vs. 62% of patients from Amsterdam (p = 0.002 for the difference between Amsterdam and all the other centers). The peculiar distribution of MTA in the Amsterdam patients may be attributable to younger age (70.7 +/- 8.4 vs. 75.3 +/- 6.8 years, p = 0.002), milder dementia severity (score 0.5 on the clinical dementia rating scale: 52 vs. 23%, p = 0.003), and less frequent depression (14 vs. 49%, p < 0.0005 in Amsterdam vs. all the other centers, respectively). CONCLUSION: Patients with probable AD recruited in different centers of Europe generally have similar MTA distribution, even if peculiar demographic and clinical findings might explain occasional differences. These results have implications for clinical trials in AD with biological markers as outcome measures.

Ewers M, Teipel SJ, Dietrich O, Schönberg SO, Jessen F, Heun R, Scheltens P, van de Pol L, Freymann NR, Moeller HJ, Hampel H. · Department of Psychiatry, Dementia and Neuroimaging Section, Alzheimer Memorial Center D2, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Nussbaumstr. 7, 80336 Munich, Germany. · Neurobiol Aging. · Pubmed #16169126 No free full text.

Abstract: Clinical utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis and assessment of neurodegenerative diseases may depend upon the reliability of MRI measurements, especially when applied within a multicenter context. In the present study, we assessed the reliability of MRI through a phantom test at a total of eleven clinics. Performance and entry criteria were defined liberally in order to support generalizability of the results. For manual hippocampal volumetry, automatic segmentation of brain compartments and voxel-based morphometry, multicenter variability was assessed on the basis of MRIs of a single subject scanned at ten of the eleven sites. In addition, cranial MRI scans obtained from 73 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 76 patients with mild cognitive impairment were collected at subset of six centers to assess differences in grey matter volume. Results show that nine out of eleven centers tested met the reliability criteria of the phantom test, where two centers showed aberrations in spatial resolution, slice thickness and slice position. The coefficient of variation was 3.55% for hippocampus volumetry, 5.02% for grey matter, 4.87% for white matter and 4.66% for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The coefficient of variation was 12.81% (S.D.=9.06) for the voxel intensities within grey matter and 8.19% (S.D.=6.9) within white matter. Power analysis for the detection of a difference in the volumes of grey matter between AD and MCI patients across centers (d=0.42) showed that the total sample size needed is N=180. In conclusion, despite minimal inclusion criteria, the reliability of MRI across centers was relatively good.