The AMYPAD Diagnostic and Patient Management Study (DPMS) was designed as a prospective, multicenter, randomised clinical trial and is the largest European study assessing the clinical effect of amyloid PET in memory clinic patients. It aims to fill the current evidence gap by providing strong evidence on the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of amyloid PET. A total of 840 patients from 8 European memory clinics have participated in this study. In a new paper published in JAMA Neurology, researchers investigated whether participants allocated to undergo amyloid PET early in their diagnostic workup received an etiological diagnosis with very high diagnostic confidence after 3 months more frequently than those who had not undergone amyloid PET yet.
Moreover, they also assessed whether early amyloid PET is associated with more frequent changes in diagnosis, diagnostic confidence, and treatment plan. Finally, they examined the real-world use and clinical effect of unrestricted amyloid PET imaging in a free-choice group. The study showed that access to this diagnostic test resulted in an etiological diagnosis with very high certainty in 40% of patients, within three months of initial clinic visit. This corresponds to a percentage of 3.5 times higher than those who had not undergone amyloid PET. Moreover, amyloid PET changed the initial diagnosis in 44% of cases, compared to only 11% in the group without amyloid PET. You can read the paper here.
