Posterior atrophy score of parietal atrophy

Radiopaedia • CC-by-nc-sa 3.0 • de

The posterior atrophy score, a.k.a. Koedam score, has been developed to enable visual assessment of parietal atrophy on MRI, and is useful in the assessment of patients with possible dementia, especially atypical or early onset Alzheimer's disease (see: neurodegenerative MRI brain: an approach) .

To generate this score, the brain must be viewed in three planes, and multiple structures assessed:

  • sagittal plane
  • coronal plane​​
    • posterior cingulate sulcus
    • parietal gyrus
  • axial plane

    • The worse features are used to generate a grade of 0 to 3 :

    • grade 0: closed sulci, no gyral atrophy
    • grade 1: mild sulcal widening, mild gyral atrophy
    • grade 2: substantial sulcal widening, substantial gyral atrophy
    • grade 3: marked sulcal widening, knife-blade gyral atrophy