Alzheimer's Research & Therapy


Commentary

Advances in quantitative magnetic resonance imaging-based biomarkers for Alzheimer disease

Bradford C Dickerson

Author Affiliations

Frontotemporal Dementia Unit, Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA

Alzheimers Res Ther 2010, 2:21 doi:10.1186/alzrt45

Published: 6 July 2010

Abstract

A critical goal of Alzheimer disease research is to identify disease biomarkers that can be used in clinical trials to assist in the adjudication of treatment effects. While clinical validation remains a goal for many potential Alzheimer disease biomarkers, the rapid proliferation of markers has sparked comparative efforts as well. New data acquisition methods and sophisticated image-processing algorithms are poised to make a substantial impact on our ability to make precise measurements of the structure and function of regions within the living human brain and their connections and chemical composition. This commentary provides a perspective on a recently published paper and how it illustrates progress and challenges in the field.