"There has to be more caring": patient and care partner experiences of the disclosure of amyloid-β PET scan results.

Objectives: To explore patient and care partner experiences of receiving an amyloid scan result, with a focus on how clinician disclosure practices influenced patient and care partner emotional responses to the scan result and/or diagnosis.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 38 people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia and 62 care partners who experienced the disclosure of results from an amyloid PET scan as part of the CARE-IDEAS study. We used thematic analysis to analyze interview transcripts.

Beta amyloid PET scans for dementia diagnoses: Practice and research implications from CARE-IDEAS.

Beta amyloid PET scans are a minimally invasive biomarker that may inform Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis. The Caregiver's Reactions and Experience (CARE) study, an IDEAS supplement, aimed to understand experiences of PET scan recipients and their care partners regarding motivations for scans, reporting and interpreting results, and impact of results. Patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia who agreed to join the CARE-IDEAS study and their care partners participated in a baseline survey and follow-up survey approximately 18 months later, supplemented by in-depth qualitative interviews with subsets of participants.

Elevated Amyloid-β PET Scan and Cognitive and Functional Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia of Uncertain Etiology.

Background: Elevated amyloid-β (Aβ) on positron emission tomography (PET) scan is used to aid diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but many prior studies have focused on patients with a typical AD phenotype such as amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Little is known about whether elevated Aβ on PET scan predicts rate of cognitive and functional decline among those with MCI or dementia that is clinically less typical of early AD, thus leading to etiologic uncertainty.

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether elevated Aβ on PET scan predicts cognitive and functional decline over an 18-month period in those with MCI or dementia of uncertain etiology.

Association between results of an amyloid PET scan and healthcare utilization in individuals with cognitive impairment.

Background: The Imaging Dementia Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study reports that amyloid PET scans help providers diagnose and manage Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Using CARE-IDEAS, an IDEAS supplemental study, we examined the association between amyloid PET scan result (elevated or non-elevated amyloid), patient characteristics, and participant healthcare utilization.

Methods: We linked respondents in CARE-IDEAS study to their Medicare fee-for-service records (n = 1333).

Prevalence and incidence of depressive symptoms and diagnosis of depression as associated with elevated amyloid among Medicare beneficiaries with cognitive impairment.

Background: Depression and cognitive impairment commonly co-occur, and it has been hypothesized that the two share pathological processes. Our objective for this study was to determine the relationship between elevated β-amyloid level and the prevalence and incidence of depressive symptoms and diagnosed depression over two years among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with cognitive impairment.

Methods: We utilized data from the CARE-IDEAS cohort study (N = 2078) including two measures of depressive symptoms (PHQ-2) and administrative claims data to identify pre-scan and incident depression diagnosis in subsample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries (N = 1443).