A new MRI technique using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can help predict when patients might suffer from stroke-related dementia, according to new research published in Stroke: A Journal of Cerebral Circulation.
The authors found that a single MRI scan could provide key information about damage to a patient’s brain. Comparing those findings to a healthy patient’s imaging results helped the team differentiate healthy and damaged tissue. The study included 99 patients with small vessel disease caused by ischemic stroke. The average patient age was 68 years old. All patients were enrolled in the St. George’s Cognition and Neuroimaging in Stroke (SCANS) study from 2007 to 2015, which involved receiving MRI scans for three consecutive years and “thinking tests” for five consecutive years.
Overall, study participants showing signs of the most brain damage was more likely to develop problems with their thinking. Eighteen participants developed dementia during the study, and the average time to onset was approximately three years and four months.
“We have developed a useful tool for monitoring patients at risk of developing dementia and could target those who need early treatment,” senior author Rebecca A. Charlton, PhD, department of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London in the U.K., said in a prepared statement from the American Heart Association.
The study did have certain limitations, according to the statement. The healthy patient MRI scans used for comparisons all came from the same patient, for example, and all study participants had small vessel disease that came from suffering the same kind of stroke, “so the results may not apply to people with different forms of the disease.”
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.