Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Measured with Arterial Spin Labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Table 1

Review of the literature regarding ASL findings in MCI and AD.

Ref	Methods	Number of subjects/MMSE (mean and range, in parentheses, or standard deviation (±), if available)	Patterns of hyper/hypoperfusion
[5]	(i) 1.5 T MRI; (ii) EPISTAR: echo-planar imaging and signal targeting with alternating radio frequency; (iii) Inclusion criteria: Hachinski Ischemia score < 4	(i) AD: 11; (ii) HC: 8	AD: in temporooccipital and parietooccipital association cortex, compared to HC
[6]	(i) 1.5 T MRI; (ii) EPI CASL; (iii) Inclusion criteria: Hachinski Ischemia score < 2	(i) AD: 17; (ii) HC: 11	AD: parietal, temporal, occipital, precuneus/posterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex, compared to HC
[7]	(i) 1.5 T MRI; (ii) PASL; (iii) Voxel by voxel analysis. Correction for atrophy in the AD group	(i) AD: 20/21.0 (17–26); (ii) MCI: 18/27.7 (24–30); (iii) HC: 23/29.4 (28–30)	(i) AD: in bilateral inferior parietal cortex, PCC, bilateral superior and middle frontal gyri, compared to HC; (ii) MCI: in inferior R parietal lobe, compared to HC
[8]	(i) 1.5 T MRI; (ii) SE-EPI CASL; (iii) Covariance pattern regional analysis using; absolute, unnormalized, measures of blood flow	(i) AD: (ii) HC:	AD: global decrease in flow (mean 40%), compared to HC. regional analysis using covariance pattern: in PCC, parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus
[9]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) 3D FSE CASL; (iii) Atrophy corrected whole brain analysis	(i) AD: 22/22.2; (ii) HC: 16/27.9	(i) AD: in bilateral precuneus, parietal association cortex and L inferior temporal lobe, compared to HC.; (ii) AD: in hippocampus and other medial temporal structures, after correction for GM loss, compared to HC
[10]	(i) 1.5 T MRI; (ii) 2D CASL; (iii) PVC applied for each voxel of CBF, probabilistic segmentation maps; (iv) Voxel-level rCBF was compared among groups by using an analysis of variance design; clusters of voxels with significant group differences were identified	(i) AD: (ii) MCI: (iii) HC:	(i) MCI, AD: in PCC and medial precuneus, compared to HC; (ii) MCI: in L hippocampus, R amygdala, and rostral head of the R caudate nucleus, ventral putamen and globus pallidus, compared to HC; (iii) AD: in L inferior parietal, L lateral frontal, L superior temporal, and L orbitofrontal cortices, relative to CN and MCI; (iv) AD: in ACC, compared to CN
[11]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) pASL; (iii) Region of interest (ROI) analysis in the hippocampus	(i) Subjects at risk of AD (positive family history, at least one copy of apoEε4): 13; (ii) Non-risk controls: 10	At risk group: in hippocampus (25%) at baseline
[12]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) Multidelay PASL; (iii) Measures of CBF, arterial transit delay and arterial blood volume	(i) AD: (ii) HC:	AD: in precuneus and PCC (in all the measured parameters)
[13]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) 3D FSE PCASL; (iii) Whole-brain quantitative CBF; (iv) PVC of CBF maps	(i) AD: (ii) MCI: (iii) SMC:	MCI, AD: in parietal regions, precuneus and PCC, compared to SMC
[14]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) 3D FSE PCASL; (iii) Whole-brain quantitative CBF	(i) AD: (ii) MCI: (iii) HC:	(i) MCI Compared to HC; in bilateral frontal lobes and R temporal subgyral regions; in L occipital lobe, bilateral inferior temporal cortex, and R middle temporal cortex; (ii) AD Compared with MCI; in R limbic lobe and basal ganglia (putamen, caudate, lentiform, thalamus); in L medial frontal lobe, parietal cortex, R middle temporooccipital lobe, and, particularly, the L anterior cingulate gyrus; (iii) AD Compared to HC; in bilateral temporoparietooccipital cortices and L limbic lobe
[15]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) 3D FSE PCASL; (iii) Voxel-wise method and a ROI-wise approach using five ROI-sets in the GM	(i) Presenile dementia at early stages (AD and FTD): (i) HC:	in the amygdala (), L ACC, R PCC, bilateral thalamus, postcentral gyrus (), bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, putamen (), L insula, bilateral medial frontal gyrus, L superior frontal gyrus, L caudate, L occipital gyrus, bilateral gyrus parahippocampalis, bilateral medial temporal gyrus
[16]	(i) 3 T MRI; (ii) 3D GE PASL; (iii) Prospective longitudinal study	(i) sCON: (ii) dCON: (iii) MCI:	in the PCC at baseline is found in healthy elderly patients who develop subsequent cognitive deterioration

Ref: Reference. MMSE: Mini-Mental State Examination score. PASL: Pulsed ASL. CASL: Continuous ASL. PCASL: pseudocontinuous ASL. PVC: Partial volume correction. AD: Alzheimer’s disease. MCI: Mild cognitive impairment. HC: Healthy control. SMC: Subjective Memory Complaints. FTD: Frontotemporal Dementia. sCON: Stable Cognitive Function. dCON: Deteriorating cognitive function. : Hypoperfusion in ASL. : Hyperperfusion in ASL. R: Right. L: Left. FSE: Fast Spin Echo. GE: Gradient echo. CBF: Cerebral Blood Flow. GM: Grey Matter. PCC: Posterior Cingulate Cortex. ACC: Anterior Cingulate Cortex. SVM: Support Vector Machine.