• J Barakos, R Sperling, S Salloway, C Jack, A Gass, J B Fiebach, D Tampieri, D Melançon, Y Miaux, G Rippon, R Black, Y Lu, H R Brashear, H M Arrighi, K A Morris, and M Grundman.
• California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
• AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2013 Oct 1; 34 (10): 1958-65.

Background And PurposeAD is one of the few leading causes of death without a disease-modifying drug; however, hopeful agents are in various phases of development. MR imaging abnormalities, collectively referred to as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, have been reported for several agents that target cerebral Aβ burden. ARIA includes ARIA-E, parenchymal or sulcal hyperintensities on FLAIR indicative of parenchymal edema or sulcal effusions, and ARIA-H, hypointense regions on gradient recalled-echo/T2* indicative of hemosiderin deposition. This report describes imaging characteristics of ARIA-E and ARIA-H identified during studies of bapineuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against Aβ.Materials And MethodsTwo neuroradiologists with knowledge of imaging changes reflective of ARIA reviewed MR imaging scans from 210 bapineuzumab-treated patients derived from 3 phase 2 studies. Each central reader interpreted the studies independently, and discrepancies were resolved by consensus. The inter-reader κ was 0.76, with 94% agreement between neuroradiologists regarding the presence or absence of ARIA-E in individual patients.ResultsThirty-six patients were identified with incident ARIA-E (17.1%, 36/210) and 26 with incident ARIA-H (12.4%, 26/210); of those with incident ARIA-H, 24 had incident microhemorrhages and 2 had incident large superficial hemosiderin deposits.ConclusionsIn 49% of cases of ARIA-E, there was the associated appearance of ARIA-H. In treated patients without ARIA-E, the risk for incident blood products was 4%. This association between ARIA-E and ARIA-H may suggest a common pathophysiologic mechanism. Familiarity with ARIA should permit radiologists and clinicians to recognize and communicate ARIA findings more reliably for optimal patient management.

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