Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37952286›Full record

ArticleNeuroImage. Clinical2023

Detecting conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease using FLAIR MRI biomarkers.

Owen Crystal, Pejman J Maralani, Sandra Black, Corinne Fischer, Alan R Moody, April Khademi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NeuroImage. Clinical, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Effect of Multi-Modal Training in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Owen CrystalElectrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada; Keenan Research Center, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: ocrystal@torontomu.ca.
Pejman J MaralaniDepartment of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Sandra BlackInstitute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; L.C. Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Unit, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Neurology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Corinne FischerInstitute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; Keenan Research Center, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Alan R MoodyDepartment of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
April KhademiElectrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Keenan Research Center, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST), Toronto, ON, Canada October 5, 2023; Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and while it presents as an imperative intervention window, it is difficult to detect which subjects convert to AD (cMCI) and which ones remain stable (sMCI). The objective of this work was to investigate fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI biomarkers and their ability to differentiate between sMCI and cMCI subjects in cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Three types of biomarkers were investigated: volume, intensity and texture. Volume biomarkers included total brain volume, cerebrospinal fluid volume (CSF), lateral ventricular volume, white matter lesion volume, subarachnoid CSF, and grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM), all normalized to intracranial volume. The mean intensity, kurtosis, and skewness of the GM and WM made up the intensity features. Texture features quantified homogeneity and microstructural tissue changes of GM and WM regions. Composite indices were also considered, which are biomarkers that represent an aggregate sum (z-score normalization and summation) of all biomarkers. The FLAIR MRI biomarkers successfully identified high-risk subjects as significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the means of the sMCI and cMCI groups and the rate of change over time for several individual biomarkers as well as the composite indices for both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Classification accuracy and feature importance analysis showed volume biomarkers to be most predictive, however, best performance was obtained when complimenting the volume biomarkers with the intensity and texture features. Using all the biomarkers, accuracy of 86.2 % and 69.2 % was achieved for normal control-AD and sMCI-cMCI classification respectively. Survival analysis demonstrated that the majority of the biomarkers showed a noticeable impact on the AD conversion probability 4 years prior to conversion. Composite indices were the top performers for all analyses including feature importance, classification, and survival analysis. This demonstrated their ability to summarize various dimensions of disease into single-valued metrics. Significant correlation (p < 0.05) with phosphorylated-tau and amyloid-beta CSF biomarkers was found with all the FLAIR biomarkers. The proposed biomarker system is easily attained as FLAIR is routinely acquired, models are not computationally intensive and the results are explainable, thus making this pipeline easily integrated into clinical workflow.

Indexed as

Alzheimer DiseaseCognitive DysfunctionAmyloid beta-PeptidesBiomarkersCross-Sectional StudiesDisease ProgressionHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingPeptide Fragmentstau ProteinsAmyloid beta-PeptidesBiomarkersPeptide Fragmentstau ProteinsAlzheimer’s diseaseBiomarkersFLAIR MRIMild cognitive impairment

Identifiers

PMID37952286
PMCPMC10666029

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.