Bagnoli Silvia, Piaceri Irene, Sorbi Sandro, Nacmias Benedetta
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research & Child Health, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy.
Neurodegener Dis Manag. 2014;4(1):73-81. doi: 10.2217/nmt.13.68.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and represents a major public health problem. From a clinical perspective, AD is devastating to patients and their families. The genetic approach to the study of dementia undoubtedly continues to provide a significant contribution to understanding the pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapeutic perspectives, but also raises important ethical implications. With advances in new technology, including genetics and PET/MRI scanning, the role of genetic studies and neuroimaging is being redefined as an aid in the clinical diagnosis of AD, and also in presymptomatic evaluation. Here, we review some of the issues related to the neuroimaging-genetic relationship in AD with a possible clinical implication as a preclinical biomarker for dementia and also for tracking disease progression.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是痴呆最常见的病因，也是一个重大的公共卫生问题。从临床角度来看，AD对患者及其家庭具有毁灭性影响。痴呆症研究的遗传学方法无疑将继续为理解其发病机制、诊断和治疗前景做出重大贡献，但也引发了重要的伦理问题。随着包括遗传学和PET/MRI扫描在内的新技术的进步，基因研究和神经影像学的作用正在被重新定义，它们不仅有助于AD的临床诊断，还能用于症状前评估。在此，我们回顾一些与AD中神经影像学-基因关系相关的问题，这些问题可能具有临床意义，可作为痴呆症的临床前生物标志物以及追踪疾病进展。
