Regional rates of brain atrophy - can they be used as a reliable tool for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease?

We present global and regional rates of brain atrophy measured on serial structural magnetic resonance (MR) images for a group of Alzheimer's patients and age-matched normal elderly control subjects. Specifically, three rates of brain atrophy: the rate of atrophy in the entire cerebral volume, the rate of lateral ventricular enlargement and the rate of atrophy in the temporal lobe region were evaluated for 14 Alzheimer's patients and 14 age-matched control subjects. The rates of brain atrophy were measured with an automated procedure that includes image segmentation and a fuzziness measure for voxels with partial volume effect. All three rates demonstrated great discriminant power in separating the two groups. However, the most discriminant power was found when the regional rates were combined. Using the lateral ventricular enlargement rate and the rate of brain atrophy in the temporal lobe region, the two groups could be completely separated. We conclude that regional rates of brain atrophy measured on structural MR images have a potential for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.