Predicting conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease using brain 1H-MRS and volumetric changes: A two- year retrospective follow-up study

This study investigated the ability of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and brain volumetry to predict the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) on the basis of clinical classification at 2？years follow-up. Thirty-eight MCI patients, eighteen healthy older adults and twenty-three AD patients were included in this study. All participants underwent a brain-MR protocol (1.5？T GE scanner) including high-resolution T1-weighted volumetric sequence (isotropic 1mm3). Voxel-wise differences in brain volumetry were evaluated using FreeSurfer software and all volumes were normalized by the total intracranial volume (TIV). Careful localization of 1H-MRS volume of PCC was performed and data were processed with the LCModel program. MCI patients underwent a complete neuropsychological assessment at baseline and were clinically re-evaluated after a mean of 28？months; twenty-six MCI patients (68.4%) converted to AD and twelve remained stable