Researchers at St. Mary's Hospital have developed Quick Brain Volumetry (QbraVo), an automatic imaging program that can analyze brain volume using MRI, and a new imaging index that can diagnose early Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment.
Changes in brain volume usually occur early in the development of AD. However, due to individual differences and other factors, the accuracy of diagnosis using brain volume was inferior to that of cognitive function tests.
QbraVo, developed by Professors Ryu Dong-woo at Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital and Yang Dong-won at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, is an automated program that quickly and accurately measures brain volume using brain MRI based on the anatomical structure of the brain.
The researchers newly developed a method to calculate partial brain volumes and standardized atrophy volume ratios and used the method to construct a new Alzheimer's disease diagnosis model that integrated the cognitive function test used in the diagnosis of AD dementia and the medial temporal lobe standardized displacement ratio.
The research team used a new AD diagnosis model to measure the brain volume in three separate groups -- the normal group (56 people), mild cognitive impairment group (44 people), and AD dementia group (45 people).
As a result, the medial temporal lobe standardized atrophic volume ratio using QbraVo showed a high diagnostic ability to distinguish dementia and mild cognitive impairment from normal subjects.
Notably, the accuracy was higher for mild cognitive impairment than existing diagnostic methods.
"This study is meaningful as it confirmed that QbraVo can analyze the brain volume of MRI faster and easier than before and can be applied in actual clinical settings," Professor Ryu said. "We have applied for a patent for a diagnostic method for Alzheimer's dementia and mild cognitive impairment using the medial temporal lobe standardized atrophy volume ratio, and we plan to promote related commercialization."
The research results were published in the June edition of Brain Imaging and Behavior.