Quantitative Electroencephalography and Regional Cerebral Blood Flow: Discriminant Analysis between Alzheimer’s Patients and Healthy Controls

Forty-two patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 18 elderly healthy controls underwent quantitative EEG (qEEG) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF; 133Xe clearance) examinations. Correlations were sought between relative qEEG band powers and percent rCBF values in a posterior temporoparietal region of interest in either hemisphere. Moreover, stepwise discriminant analysis was applied to study the accuracy of the two techniques in differentiating AD from healthy ageing. rCBF and qEEG were correlated with one another, especially in the right hemisphere (p values ranging from <0.001 to <0.01). Significant correlations were found between Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and relative power of both the 2- to 6-Hz and the 6.5- to 12-Hz bands on either side (p < 0.001), and between MMSE and left rCBF (p < 0.005), while the correlation with right rCBF was poorer (p < 0.02). The statistical procedure identified the right values of both examinations for the discriminant analysis. Sensitivity of qEEG and rCBF employed together was 88% and specificity 89%, with a total accuracy of 88.3%. The unrecognized patients (n = 5) were affected by mild AD (4 scoring 3 at the Global Deterioration Scale and 1 scoring 4). qEEG alone showed an accuracy of 77% in the whole group and of 69% in mild AD, and rCBF alone an accuracy of 75% in the whole group and of 71% in mild AD. It is concluded that qEEG and rCBF examinations employed together are accurate tools to differentiate AD from normal ageing, although a lower degree of accuracy is achieved in mildly demented patients.