Table 5.

Commonly used brain imaging modalities in cognitive impairment

Modality	Use
CT	Large infarcts/haemorrhage, established small vessel disease, other pathologies, limited application
MRI	Imaging of choice for assessment of cognitive impairment54
T1 and T2 MRI	Highly sensitive to old and new infarcts, estimation of white matter disease load, other pathologies (e.g. malignancies, cerebral oedema)
T2* MRI	Blood and blood products (e.g. haemorrhages), micro-haemorrhages, haemosiderin deposition, amyloid angiopathies
DWI MRI	Extremely sensitive to early ischaemic changes (recent infarcts including micro-infarcts), integrity of fibre tracts, extensively used for tractography assessing the structural integrity of connecting white matter tracts
1H-MRS	Measurement of neuronal damage, inflammation, gliosis, differentiation between pathology and normal aging

1H-MRS, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy; CT, computed tomography; DWI, diffusion-weighted imaging; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.