Foci of increased T2 signal intensity in MR images of healthy elderly subjects. A follow-up study.

An 18-month follow-up study was conducted on 26 healthy elderly subjects with and without foci of increased T2 signal intensity on MR imaging. The subjects did not differ with respect to health status or cognitive performance as measured by the Cognitive Subscale of the Cambridge Mental Disorders of the Elderly Examination and the Mini Mental State Examination at follow-up. There was a significant decline in performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test in subjects who had evidence of T2 foci compared to the performance of subjects without T2 foci. This may indicate that the presence of T2 foci is correlated with subtle difficulties in learning and memory.