Is cerebral microbleed prevalence relevant as a biomarker in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease?

IntroductionThe search for a reliable neuroimaging biomarker in Alzheimer’s disease is a matter of intense research. The presence of cerebral microbleeds seems to be a potential biomarker. However, it is not clear if the presence of microbleeds has clinical usefulness to differentiate mild Alzheimer’s disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment from normal aging. We aimed to verify if microbleed prevalence differs among three groups: mild Alzheimer’s disease, amnestic mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease, and normal controls. Moreover, we studied whether microbleeds were associated with apolipoprotein E allele ɛ4 status, cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta, total and phosphorylated tau protein levels, vascular factors, and cognition.MethodsTwenty-eight mild Alzheimer’s disease patients, 34 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and 36 cognitively normal elderly subjects underwent: magnetic resonance imaging with a susceptibility-weighted imaging sequence on a 3T scanner, apolipoprotein E ...