Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging compared in Alzheimer's and multi- infarct dementia

Cerebral magnetic resonance images (MRI) were compared between two groups, each of 25 patients, one with senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type (SDAT) and the other with multi-infarct dementia (MID). MRI proved to be clinically useful for differentiating SDAT from MID, utilizing a multivariate model of six MRI criteria as follows: ventricular-brain ratio, presence of subcortical infarcts, bifrontal ventricular ratio, bicaudate ventricular ratio, third ventricular ratio, and presence of diffuse periventricular high-intensity white matter lucencies. Utilizing all six MRI criteria, classification by discriminant function analysis provided 84% correct diagnostic agreement with clinical classification of MID patients, 92% for SDAT patients, and 88% for the total cohort of demented patients.