Gil Rabinovici investigated the relationship between use of Amyloid PET in clinics and subsequent use of health care. This paper is the secondary outcome of the IDEAS study (the biggest real-world amyloid PET study on people with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia). The primary outcome showed that Amyloid PET was associated with changes of clinicians assessments and disease management.
The question assessed in this paper is if Amyloid PET also leads to a change in 12-month hospitalizations or Emergency Department visits. Unfortunately, the data showed that there was not a relationship. Additionally, patients with amyloid positive scans (1467/6484 - 21%) were less hospitalized within 12 months, compared with participants that had amyloid PET negative scans (1081/4209 - 26%). Whereas this might sound counter intuitive, there are two key points to keep in mind. First, patients with amyloid PET positive results had a change in management by their clinicians (as discussed on the primary outcome of IDEAS). Second, IDEAS is a real-world study with few exclusion criteria, so the cause of cognitive impairment in amyloid negative participants might be due to comorbidities (cerebrovascular disease, Parkinsons disease, or epilepsy).
Exciting to see amyloid PET out in the real world!
