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71/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 71 out of 100. Mild cognitive impairment

Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis

Plain-language summary

In clinical samples, people with amnestic MCI are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease dementia, with annual rates of progression from MCI to Alzheimer's disease estimated at approximately 10% to 15% compared with the base incidence rates of Alzheimer's disease dementia of 1% to 2% per year. Objectives To assess the diagnostic accuracy of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the early diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease in people with MCI versus the clinical follow-up diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia as a reference standard (delayed verification). We included studies that compared the diagnostic test accuracy of baseline structural MRI versus the clinical follow-up diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia (delayed verification). We used the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) model to fit summary ROC curves and to obtain overall measures of relative accuracy in subgroup analyses. Main results We included 33 studies, published from 1999 to 2019, with 3935 participants of whom 1341 (34%) progressed to Alzheimer's disease dementia and 2594 (66%) did not. We found no evidence of a difference between studies in the accuracy of the total hippocampal volume with regards to duration of follow-up or age of participants, but the manual MRI technique was superior to automatic techniques in mixed (mostly indirect) comparisons. We did not assess the relative accuracy of the volumes of different brain regions measured by MRI because only indirect comparisons were available, studies were heterogeneous, and the overall accuracy of all regions was moderate.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Lombardi, G., Crescioli, G., Cavedo, E., Lucenteforte, E., Casazza, G., Bellatorre, A. G., et al. (2020). Structural magnetic resonance imaging for the early diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease in people with mild cognitive impairment. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009628.pub2

Vancouver

Lombardi G, Crescioli G, Cavedo E, Lucenteforte E, Casazza G, Bellatorre AG, et al. Structural magnetic resonance imaging for the early diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease in people with mild cognitive impairment. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. 2020. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd009628.pub2. PMID: 32119112.

BibTeX

@article{lombardi2020-32119112,
  author  = {Lombardi, G. and Crescioli, G. and Cavedo, E. and Lucenteforte, E. and Casazza, G. and Bellatorre, A. G. and Lista, C. and Costantino, G. and others},
  title   = {{Structural magnetic resonance imaging for the early diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease in people with mild cognitive impairment}},
  journal = {The Cochrane database of systematic reviews},
  year    = {2020},
  doi     = {10.1002/14651858.cd009628.pub2},
  pmid    = {32119112},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009628.pub2}
}

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How to read this study

Design: this is a follow-up (cohort) study. People are observed over time and not assigned to anything, so an association can reflect other differences between groups. Look at how long follow-up lasted, how many dropped out, and whether the authors adjusted for age, education and other health conditions.
Size: the record lists 33 participants. Ask whether that is enough for the question, and who they were.
Effect: the record gives no effect size, so the summary above cannot say how large any difference was.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded moderate. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. Moderate means the abstract mentions a cohort, case-control or longitudinal design. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

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Key findings

In clinical samples, people with amnestic MCI are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease dementia, with annual rates of progression from MCI to Alzheimer's disease estimated at approximately 10% to 15% compared with the base incidence rates of Alzheimer's disease dementia of 1% to 2% per year.
Objectives To assess the diagnostic accuracy of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the early diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease in people with MCI versus the clinical follow-up diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia as a reference standard (delayed verification).
We included studies that compared the diagnostic test accuracy of baseline structural MRI versus the clinical follow-up diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia (delayed verification).
We used the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) model to fit summary ROC curves and to obtain overall measures of relative accuracy in subgroup analyses.
Main results We included 33 studies, published from 1999 to 2019, with 3935 participants of whom 1341 (34%) progressed to Alzheimer's disease dementia and 2594 (66%) did not.

Why it matters

This review of 33 studies with 3,935 participants assessed the accuracy of structural MRI for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia in people with mild cognitive impairment, finding no difference in total hippocampal volume accuracy by follow-up duration or age. It addresses diagnostic accuracy only, not treatment, cure, or prevention.

Study details

Study designcohort study
Participants33
Evidence strengthModerate

How this study scored 71/100

Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a meta-analysis pooling many studies. Scored zero for effect reported because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	9 / 10	Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (The Cochrane database of systematic reviews)
Journal's citation record	3 / 4	Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: journal h-index 468 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	12 / 12	A meta-analysis pooling many studies (from PubMed type “Meta-Analysis”)
Strength of evidence	3 / 5	Rated “moderate” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	2 / 5	2020 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	1 / 4	33 participants
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomized / blinded	0 / 2	A review of other studies — randomization is not credited here
Times cited	5 / 7	Cited 215 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	4 / 5	26.9 citations a year over 8 year(s) since 2020
Impact for its field and year	4 / 6	Cited 16.3× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	3 / 6	Cited by 12 other studies in this library
Still being cited	3 / 4	Cited 114 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	3 / 4	Last-listed author Graziella Filippini: h-index 53 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	1 / 3	Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris: institution h-index 1,236 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	3 / 3	OpenAlex lists 12 institution(s) in 3 countries
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 32119112)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Total	71 / 100	—

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