Diffusion Tensor Weighted MRI in Alzheimer's Disease Modifying Treatment Effects of Galantamine (Reminyl®)

Summary

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive subcortical and cortical neuronal degeneration. AD patients differ in the time course of neuronal degeneration and accompanying cognitive decline. With recent advances in MR imaging, including optimized data acquisition and processing techniques, tools that are especially well suited for tracking long-term pathological changes as well as drug treatment effects have become available. In addition to structural imaging, new acquisition and analysis techniques have been developed to determine integrity of subcortical fiber tracts in vivo. In the present project we propose to determine predictors of disease progression and treatment response and investigate potential treatment effects on structural disease progression, covering the continuum from axonal degeneration to cortical neuronal loss taking advantage of recent advances in MRI acquisition and analysis techniques.

Timeline

Start

2006-09

Primary completion

—

Completion

2008-09

Publications

• Background Teipel SJ, Stahl R, Dietrich O, Schoenberg SO, Perneczky R, Bokde AL, Reiser MF, Moller HJ, Hampel H. Multivariate network analysis of fiber tract integrity in Alzheimer's disease. Neuroimage. 2007 Feb 1;34(3):985-95. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.07.047. Epub 2006 Dec 12.
• Background Sydykova D, Stahl R, Dietrich O, Ewers M, Reiser MF, Schoenberg SO, Moller HJ, Hampel H, Teipel SJ. Fiber connections between the cerebral cortex and the corpus callosum in Alzheimer's disease: a diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry study. Cereb Cortex. 2007 Oct;17(10):2276-82. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhl136. Epub 2006 Dec 12.
• Lim AWY, Schneider L, Loy C. Galantamine for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Nov 5;11(11):CD001747. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001747.pub4.
• Blautzik J, Keeser D, Paolini M, Kirsch V, Berman A, Coates U, Reiser M, Teipel SJ, Meindl T. Functional connectivity increase in the default-mode network of patients with Alzheimer's disease after long-term treatment with Galantamine. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2016 Mar;26(3):602-13. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.12.006. Epub 2015 Dec 10.

Drugs

Indications