Authors' recommendations: With the exception of dementia related to vascular disease, prevalence of potentially treatable dementias is low (< 10%), and improvement after treatment of the underlying condition is less than 1% (GRADE: Very low). Prediction rules and individual clinical indications do not reliably predict abnormalities or influence diagnosis or treatment (GRADE: Very low). The clinical utility of structural neuroimaging is: high for patients with potentially mixed dementia high for patients where there is uncertainty for 2 years or more about the type of dementia low for patients with Alzheimer disease clinically diagnosed by follow-up over time (e.g., 1 year) low for patients where vascular dementia has been clinically excluded (GRADE: Low) For the detection of a vascular component to dementia, there is a lack of evidence that MRI is superior to CT (GRADE: Low). In terms of diagnostic accuracy, structural neuroimaging has low to moderate sensitivity and high specificity for discriminating Alzheimer disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and clinically ambiguous cases (GRADE: Low to Very low).

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2014

URL for published report: http://www.hqontario.ca/Portals/0/Documents/eds/ohtas/eba-imaging-dementia-140218-en.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Canada

Organisation Name: Health Quality Ontario

Contact Address: Evidence Development and Standards, Health Quality Ontario, 130 Bloor Street West, 10th floor, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 1N5

Contact Name: EDSinfo@hqontario.ca

Contact Email: OH-HQO_hta-reg@ontariohealth.ca

Copyright: Health Quality Ontario