Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
A lightweight deep learning pipeline for MRI-based differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment
Abstract Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) accounts for 60–70% of dementia cases, with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a prodromal stage. Early diagnosis is critical. This study aimed to develop and validate a lightweight deep learning pipeline for automated classification of AD, MCI, and cognitively normal (CN) using routine 1.5 T MRI. Method We analyzed 567 ADNI participants (95 CN, 368 MCI, 104 AD ). Preprocessing of T1-weighted MRI included skull stripping, resampling, and intensity normalization. Eleven c …