TUESDAY, April 2, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For Medicare beneficiaries with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia of uncertain etiology, amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) is associated with changes in clinical management, according to a study published in the April 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Gil D. Rabinovici, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues examined the correlation between amyloid PET and subsequent changes in clinical management for Medicare beneficiaries with MCI or dementia of uncertain etiology. A total of 16,008 patients were enrolled by 946 dementia specialists at 595 U.S. sites (71.3 percent completed study procedures and were included in the analyses). Diagnosis and management plans were documented before PET and 90 days after PET.
The researchers found that amyloid PET results were positive in 55.3 and 70.1 percent of patients with MCI and dementia, respectively. The composite end point (change in management between the pre- and post-PET visits) changed in 60.2 percent of patients with MCI and 63.5 percent of patients with dementia, exceeding the 30 percent threshold in each group. In 25.1 and 10.5 percent of patients, the etiologic diagnosis changed from Alzheimer disease to non-Alzheimer disease and from non-Alzheimer disease to Alzheimer disease, respectively.
“Further research is needed to determine whether amyloid PET is associated with improved clinical outcomes,” the authors write.
Two authors disclosed financial ties to medical device companies, including General Electric Healthcare and Life Molecular Imaging, both of which partially funded the study.
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