Brain imaging

MRI scans (left column) and PET scans with amyloid imaging using 11Carbon Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) (right column) provide complementary information. Top panel, the MRI and PIB PET scans from a person who is cognitively normal (CN); bottom panel, the MRI and PIB PET scans from a person with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The generalized brain volume loss and the hippocampal atrophy are evident in the AD MRI scan compared with the CN scan. On the AD PIB PET scan, a dramatic increase in signal intensity can be seen in the frontal and parietal lobes due to retention of the 11C-PIB bound to fibrillar amyloid compared with the CN PIB PET scan, which shows negligible retention of the tracer in the white matter.