Cerebral amyloid PET imaging in Alzheimer's disease

The devastating effects of the still incurable Alzheimer's disease (AD) project an ever increasing shadow of burden on the health care system and society in general. In this ominous context, amyloid (A beta) imaging is considered by many of utmost importance for progress towards earlier AD diagnosis and for potential development of effective therapeutic interventions. Amyloid imaging positron emission tomography procedures offer the opportunity for accurate mapping and quantification of amyloid-A beta neuroaggregate deposition in the living brain of AD patients. This review analyzes the perceived value of current A beta imaging probes and their clinical utilization and, based on amyloid imaging results, offers a hypothesis on the effects of amyloid deposition on the biology of AD and its progression. It also analyzes lingering questions permeating the field of amyloid imaging on the apparent contradictions between imaging results and known neuropathology brain regional deposition of A beta aggregates. As a result, the review also discusses literature evidence as to whether brain A beta deposition is truly visualized and measured with these amyloid imaging agents, which would have significant implications in the understanding of the biological AD cascade and in the monitoring of therapeutic interventions with these surrogate A beta markers.