Using an MRI can effectively and non-invasively screen patients for Alzheimer's disease, to determine the root cause of a person's dementia, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Using an MRI-based algorithm effectively differentiated cases 75 percent of the time, according to the study, published in the December 26th, 2012, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The non-invasive approach reported in this study can track disease progression over time more easily and cost-effectively than other tests, particularly in clinical trials testing new therapies.

Researchers used the MRIs to predict the ratio of two biomarkers for the diseases in the cerebrospinal fluid. "Using this novel method, we obtain a single biologically meaningful value from analyzing MRI data in this manner and then we can derive a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood of Alzheimer's," said the study's lead author, Corey McMillan, PhD, of the Perelman School of Medicine and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Using the MRI prediction method was 75 percent accurate at identifying the correct diagnosis in both patients with pre-confirmed disease diagnoses and those with biomarker  levels confirmed by lumbar punctures, which shows comparable overlap between accuracy of the MRI and lumbar puncture methods.

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