Faster MRI scans could help end dementia diagnosis ‘postcode lottery’
Faster MRI scans could help end the “postcode lottery” in diagnosing dementia by lowering costs and making scans more widely available, according to a study.
Brain scans, along with memory tests and blood tests, help diagnose dementia, but MRI scans are expensive so few patients are offered them.
Researchers at University College London (UCL) have developed a way to run brain scans to get the same results in a third of the time; They lowered the cost by potentially doubling the number of dementia screenings that could be done in a day.
Richard Oakley, Deputy Director of Research and Innovation at the Alzheimer’s Association, said: “Although MRIs are not the only way to diagnose dementia, very few people with concerns about their cognitive health are offered MRIs as part of the diagnostic process, mainly because they are expensive and not widely available.
“These faster MRIs, which take less than half the time of standard scans, could help end this postcode lottery in diagnosing dementia, reduce costs and potentially give more people access to them.”
It is estimated that there are currently 982,000 people with dementia in the UK, but more than a third of people with the condition have no diagnosis. One in four people have to wait two years before getting help for their dementia symptoms and starting medication.
Emerging therapies such as lecanemab and donanemab require MRI scanning for safety monitoring before starting the medication and throughout treatment.
Reducing the cost of screening will also contribute to reducing the total cost of administering these treatments.
Professor Nick Fox, from the UCL Institute of Neurology, said: “As more treatments are developed that can slow or change the course of dementia, it is important to ensure that MRI scans are available to everyone. This is because people living with dementia often need an MRI scan as part of their diagnosis before they can access these treatments.”
“To make this possible, our team conducted the first study examining how new imaging techniques, called parallel imaging, could speed up MRI scans in clinics. Their goal is to move closer to a future where every person with dementia can be diagnosed through scanning.”
Study published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementiaaimed to understand the reliability of rapid MRI scans compared to standard-of-care clinical scans.
Researchers at UCL scanned 92 people aged between 50 and 90 as part of their routine clinical assessment.
Accelerated scans have been updated to run in six minutes and 29 seconds, compared to the traditional scan that takes 17 minutes and 39 seconds.
Three neuroradiologists, unaware of whether they were looking at rapid scans or standard scans, compared the results.
The team found that the faster scans, which reduced scanner time by 63 percent, were just as reliable as standard scans for diagnosis and visual grading.
The researchers will now capitalize on their initial results by making sure the approach works on different types of MRI machines, thus benefiting as many hospitals and clinics as possible.
