Characterizing early Alzheimer's disease and disease progression using hippocampal volume and arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI.

Searching for biomarkers sensitive to early Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its progression has been a research priority for two decades. MRI has been increasingly used for this endeavor because of its capability of detecting both structural and functional brain patterns without injecting external contrast agent or radioactive tracers. Recent work has shown sensitivity of hippocampal volume and regional cerebral blood flow for differentiating prodromal AD from normal controls as well as AD. This review provides a summary for the existing literature describing the applications of either or both modalities in early AD studies as well as disease progression assessment. The various findings in the reviewed studies lead to a conclusion of assessing hippocampal volume and arterial spin labeling cerebral blood flow as potential markers for disease detection, and progression monitoring though longitudinal studies are still lacking to fully examine their sensitivity and specificity.