Brain Health Assessment Programme

Two Main Focuses of Brain Health Screening in Recent Research

Stroke Risks
Scientific evidence shows up to 80% of strokes are preventable. Screening of brain health is recommended in people who are conscious of their cerebrovascular health and have risk factors of stroke such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity, smoking and a family history of stroke.



Cognitive Impairment Risks
Risk factors for cognitive impairment include old age, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity), certain genetic mutations (including those linked with Alzheimer’s disease), depression, etc.

With mild cognitive impairment, changes often go unnoticed by patients or their loved ones. Screening for cognitive impairment allows early recognition, timely lifestyle modification and interventions.

Brain Health Assessment Programme Package Price

Brain Health Assessment Programme is designed based on the American Heart Association Guideline on Primary Stroke Prevention1 and Journal of the American Medical Association advice on screening for stroke and cognitive impairment risks in older adults2.

Cardiac Screening of Ischaemic Stroke

Up to 15-30% of ischaemic strokes are caused by atrial fibrillation and cardiac embolism, and are generally associated with higher chance of recurrence, morbidity and mortality than other causes of stroke.

Early identification of specific cause is crucial to choose the most optimal strategy of primary prevention for the different subtypes of cardiogenic ischaemic stroke.

Workup of cardiogenic ischaemic stroke risks may include:
• Electrocardiography
• Holter monitoring
• Echocardiography (TTE / TEE)

Dementia and Detection of Brain Volume Loss

Cerebral atrophy is a long-term effect of neurodegeneration. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias exhibit different degree and patterns of brain volume loss. Detectable changes can be identified in early pre-symptomatic disease stage for risk assessment of cerebral atrophy.

AccuBrain® is a fully automatic neuroimaging analysis system based on the latest image computing technology. The AI imaging analysis system assists neurologists to precisely and accurately analyse the characteristic measurements and patterns of regional brain volume loss. The system can also compare patient’s MRI sequenced images with extensive data of healthy and patient control groups, including reference of local population, Alzheimer's disease control groups and other dementias control groups, for a better understanding of the patient's conditions.

PET/CT and Alzheimer’s Disease

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan is valuable to show and quantify the cellular activities and the distribution of functional molecules in the brain. PET/CT imaging examinations available in HKSH utilise multiple tracers to aid the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and the other causes of dementia:
• 11C-Amyloid and 18F-Tau PET/CT scans measure abnormal accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain serve as diagnostic indicators for Alzheimer’s disease
• 18F-FDG PET/CT scan measures glucose metabolism in the brain which is useful for differentiating Alzheimer’s disease from other causes of dementia

Early Alzheimer's disease can be detected by PET/CT scan before onset of signs and symptoms. Neurologists can guide patients on measures to reduce the impact of future cognitive decline.