MRI visual rating scales in the diagnosis of dementia

Distinguishing between the different disease processes that cause dementia is vitally important to allow affected individuals and their families to access appropriate treatment, support and care. However, accurate diagnosis during life can be challenging, with distinct disease processes often resulting in overlapping clinical symptoms, and examination of brain tissue after death is currently the most accurate means of diagnosis. Using brain imaging acquired during life in people with post-mortem confirmed dementia, Dr Lorna Harper and colleagues have evaluated the ability of simple visual rating tools to improve diagnostic certainty.

• Read our full manuscript in Brain.
• Explore in detail how visual rating scale scores correlate with grey matter volume via our NeuroVault image repository.
• Try applying the visual rating scales using our visual rating reference guide.
• Learn more about visual rating scales in the diagnosis of dementia in our previous article in JNNP.