Research resources for investigations of early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

Park Jee-Yun, Yun Sang-Moon, Koh Young Ho
Division of Brain Diseases, Center for Biomedical Sciences, KNIH, KCDC
Seo Sang Won
Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center

Dementia causes decreased cognitive function and disrupts daily life. Early detection of dementia and subsequent drug treatment may delay the onset of dementia. However, research resources for the development of early diagnosis technology and standardization of diagnosis are lacking. To overcome these, “Analysis of cohort-based amyloid pathology-related biomarkers” project planned by the Division of Brain diseases in the Korea National Institute of Health was conducted by the Samsung Medical Center. Blood specimens and clinical information, including positron emission technology (PET) images of amyloid were collected from 60 normal controls, 40 subjects with mild cognitive impairment, and 20 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease. The collected resources were donated to the National Biobank of Korea to be used for dementia research.
This research project resulted in two achievements. First, we developed a model for predicting dementia conversion among the patients with mild cognitive impairment using neuropsychological tests. Second, reliable reference regions for amyloid imaging of subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD) were identified using Centiloid scores. The results will contribute to the early diagnosis of dementia and diagnosis standardization.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Mild cognitive impairment, Neuropsychological tests, Predicted model, Amyloid PET