Does quantitative SPECT lead to improved performance in discrimination tasks related to prodromal Alzheimer 's disease?
Improved quantitative image reconstruction with accurate compensation for scatter, attenuation, and variable collimator response led to significantly better performance in discrimination tasks related to the diagnosis of prodromal AD than did standard clinical reconstruction procedures. The use of a nonuniform brain attenuation map yields a small improvement in discrimination accuracy.
The results illustrate how the MAPEL algorithm can leverage knowledge of cellular and molecular function through biosimulation to propose clear mechanistic hypotheses for differences in clinical populations. Furthermore, MAPEL facilitates the development of multianalyte biomarkers prognostic of patient responses in silico.