In the rapidly evolving healthcare environment, radiologists strive to establish their rightful place.Thus, there is a need for enhanced outpatient and clinical education within the Department of Radiology and exploration of its methodologies. Accordingly, the Korean Society of Radiology established a task force to investigate the clinical and outpatient practice status of radiologists overseas, current state of related education, involvement of other specialties in radiologic practices and education in Korea, and clinical and outpatient practice status among Korean radiologists. Furthermore, a survey on clinical competency enhancement was conducted among the members of the Korean Society of Radiology. These findings suggest the need for visibility and clinical competency enhancement in radiologists and methodologies for strengthening clinical competencies.

In the rapidly evolving healthcare environment, radiologists strive to establish their rightful place.Thus, there is a need for enhanced outpatient and clinical education within the Department of Radiology and exploration of its methodologies. Accordingly, the Korean Society of Radiology established a task force to investigate the clinical and outpatient practice status of radiologists overseas, current state of related education, involvement of other specialties in radiologic practices and education in Korea, and clinical and outpatient practice status among Korean radiologists. Furthermore, a survey on clinical competency enhancement was conducted among the members of the Korean Society of Radiology. These findings suggest the need for visibility and clinical competency enhancement in radiologists and methodologies for strengthening clinical competencies.

In the rapidly evolving healthcare environment, radiologists strive to establish their rightful place.Thus, there is a need for enhanced outpatient and clinical education within the Department of Radiology and exploration of its methodologies. Accordingly, the Korean Society of Radiology established a task force to investigate the clinical and outpatient practice status of radiologists overseas, current state of related education, involvement of other specialties in radiologic practices and education in Korea, and clinical and outpatient practice status among Korean radiologists. Furthermore, a survey on clinical competency enhancement was conducted among the members of the Korean Society of Radiology. These findings suggest the need for visibility and clinical competency enhancement in radiologists and methodologies for strengthening clinical competencies.

Objective: We aimed to present the study design and baseline cross-sectional participant characteristics of biobank innovations for chronic cerebrovascular disease with Alzheimer’s disease study (BICWALZS) participants. Methods: A total of 1,013 participants were enrolled in BICWALZS from October 2016 to December 2020. All participants underwent clinical assessments, basic blood tests, and standardized neuropsychological tests (n=1,013). We performed brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, n=817), brain amyloid positron emission tomography (PET, n=713), single nucleotide polymorphism microarray chip (K-Chip, n=949), locomotor activity assessment (actigraphy, n=200), and patient-derived dermal fibroblast sampling (n=175) on a subset of participants. Results: The mean age was 72.8 years, and 658 (65.0%) were females. Based on clinical assessments, total of 168, 534, 211, 80, and 20 had subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s dementia, vascular dementia, and other types of dementia or not otherwise specified, respectively. Based on neuroimaging biomarkers and cognition, 199, 159, 78, and 204 were cognitively normal (CN), Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related cognitive impairment, vascular cognitive impairment, and not otherwise specified due to mixed pathology (NOS). Each group exhibited many differences in various clinical, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging results at baseline. Baseline characteristics of BICWALZS participants in the MCI, AD, and vascular dementia groups were generally acceptable and consistent with 26 worldwide dementia cohorts and another independent AD cohort in Korea. Conclusion The BICWALZS is a prospective and longitudinal study assessing various clinical and biomarker characteristics in older adults with cognitive complaints. Details of the recruitment process, methodology, and baseline assessment results are described in this paper.

Striatal changes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is not fully understood yet. We compared structural and functional image differences in the striatum between patients with early onset AD (EOAD) and late onset AD (LOAD) to investigate whether EOAD harbors autosomal dominant AD like imaging findings. The clinical, neuropsychological and neuroimaging biomarkers of 77 probable AD patients and 107 elderly subjects with normal cognition (NC) from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)-2 dataset were analyzed. Enrolled each subject completed a 3-Tesla MRI, baseline 18F-FDG-PET, and baseline 18F-AV-45 (Florbetapir) amyloid PET studies. AD patients were divided into two groups based on the onset age of clinical symptoms (EOAD <65 yrs; LOAD ≥65 yrs). A standardized uptake value ratio of the striatum and subcortical structures was obtained from both amyloid and FDG-PET scans. Structural MR imaging analysis was conducted using a parametric boundary description protocol, SPHARM-PDM. Of the 77 AD patients, 18 were EOAD and 59 were LOAD. Except for age of symptom onset, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in demographics and detailed neuropsychological test results. 18F-AV-45 amyloid PET showed marked β-amyloid accumulation in the bilateral caudate nucleus and left pallidum in the EOAD group. Intriguingly, the caudate nucleus and putamen showed maintained glucose metabolism in the EOAD group compared to the LOAD group. Our image findings in the striatum of EOAD patients suggest that sporadic EOAD may share some pathophysiological changes noted in autosomal dominant AD.

Background: and Purpose Alzheimer’s disease (AD) does not always mean amyloid positivity. [ 18 F]THK-5351 has been shown to be able to detect reactive astrogliosis as well as tau accompanied by neurodegenerative changes. We evaluated the [ 18 F]THK-5351 retention patterns in positron-emission tomography (PET) and the clinical characteristics of patients clinically diagnosed with AD dementia who had negative amyloid PET findings. Methods: We performed 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging, [ 18 F]THK-5351 PET, and amyloid PET in 164 patients with AD dementia. Amyloid PET was visually scored as positive or negative. [ 18 F]THK-5351 PET were visually classified as having an intratemporal or extratemporal spread pattern. Results: The 164 patients included 23 (14.0%) who were amyloid-negative (age 74.9±8.3 years, mean±standard deviation; 9 males, 14 females). Amyloid-negative patients were older, had a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus, and had better visuospatial and memory functions. The frequency of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele was higher and the hippocampal volume was smaller in amyloid-positive patients. [ 18 F]THK-5351 uptake patterns of the amyloid-negative patients were classified into intratemporal spread (n=10) and extratemporal spread (n=13).Neuropsychological test results did not differ significantly between these two groups. The standardized uptake value ratio of [ 18 F]THK-5351 was higher in the extratemporal spread group (2.01±0.26 vs. 1.61±0.15, p=0.001). After 1 year, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores decreased significantly in the extratemporal spread group (-3.5±3.2, p=0.006) but not in the intratemporal spread group (-0.5±2.8, p=0.916). The diagnosis remained as AD (n=5, 50%) or changed to other diagnoses (n=5, 50%) in the intratemporal group, whereas it remained as AD (n=8, 61.5%) or changed to frontotemporal dementia (n=4, 30.8%) and other diagnoses (n=1, 7.7%) in the extratemporal spread group. Conclusions Approximately 70% of the patients with amyloid-negative AD showed abnormal [ 18 F]THK-5351 retention. MMSE scores deteriorated rapidly in the patients with an extratemporal spread pattern.