Applications of radionuclide imaging in mild cognitive impairment

The risk for conversion to dementia is much higher in individuals with mild coghitived impairmaent (MCI). The early detection of MCI individuals who will later convert to Alzheimer disease is an important issue for both clinical and research interests. Radionuclide imaging has been broadly used to study cerebral metabolism and blood flow, as well as predicting the prognosis of MCI. This review summarizes the results of these studies assessing the predicting value of radionuclide imaging used alone and with other methods in recent years. (authors)