Proven validity and management impact of amyloid imaging in Alzheimer's disease—repetita juvant.

Barthel, Henryk; Arbizu, Javier; Drzezga, Alexander; Garibotto, Valentina; Lammertsma, Adriaan A.; Morbelli, Silvia; for the EANM Neuroimaging Committee; Albert, Nathalie; Boellaard, Ronald; Cecchin, Diego; Ekmekcioglu, Ozgul; Guedj, Eric; Law, Ian; Penuelas, Ivan; Semah, Franck; Traub-Weidinger, Tatjana; van de Giessen, Elsmarieke; Varrone, Andrea

The authors propose to abandon amyloid imaging and they base this statement primarily on the fact that amyloid imaging is not able to provide the full histopathological picture of AD (amyloid plaques & tau aggregates & neurodegeneration). This presence (regardless of whether amyloid aggregates cause the disease) is what is visualized by amyloid imaging in vivo to support the clinical AD diagnosis, no more, no less. The presence of amyloid pathology clearly is diagnostic, as it is required for the current gold standard neuropathological diagnosis of AD, and amyloid imaging verifiably provides this information in vivo. For amyloid imaging, the development level for the respective recommendations which can be found in the joint publication by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the Alzheimer's Association on the Appropriate Use Criteria for Amyloid PET [[13]] is relatively high (in relation to that of other imaging procedures).

ALZHEIMER'S disease; NEUROFIBRILLARY tangles; MOLECULAR pathology

European Journal of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, 2020, Vol 47, Issue 8, p1787

1619-7070

Academic Journal

10.1007/s00259-020-04742-w