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Latest Evidence on Alzheimer’s Disease for 2026: Integrating ARIA Risk-Reduction Protocols

General Practice

Old age psychiatry

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Description

This program is supported by an independent education grant from Lilly. This online education program has been designed for healthcare professionals globally excluding the UK.

Join internationally recognized Alzheimer’s disease expert Tammie Benzinger, MD for this free, accredited online teaching session exploring the latest evidence in identifying, mitigating, and managing ARIA in Alzheimer's Disease.

Prefer to read instead? Read our Key Clinical Summary here.

Accreditation: AffinityCE designates this activity for 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™

Session Highlights

Evidence-Based Dose Modification: Review of the clinical protocols for when to suspend, continue, or permanently discontinue anti-amyloid therapies based on the severity of ARIA-E and ARIA-H findings.
Precision MRI Scheduling: Learn to implement standardized imaging timelines, including essential baseline assessments and the requirement for monthly follow-up MRIs until ARIA-E resolves.
Safety-Driven Treatment Transitions: Identify specific clinical and radiographic triggers, such as macro-hemorrhages or severe symptoms, that necessitate the immediate cessation of therapy to prioritize patient safety.

Who Should Watch

This program is designed for healthcare professionals involved in Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, imaging, treatment, and acute evaluation, including:

Neurologists
Radiologists and Neuroradiologists
Emergency Medicine Physicians
Psychiatrists and Geriatric Psychiatrists
Primary Care Physicians (MD/DO)
Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants
Infusion Center Staff
Nursing Staff
Triage Specialists
Frontline Clinical Support Teams

Presented by

Tammie L. S. Benzinger, MD, PhD, is the Hugh Monroe Wilson Professor of Radiology and Chief of MRI Service at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Her work focuses on PET and MRI biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders, and she directs imaging programs for the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, DIAN, and DIAN-TU. A recognized leader in neuroradiology, she has received multiple national awards and is known for advancing early detection of degenerative brain disease through innovative imaging science.

Continuing Education Information

Commercial support: This activity received monetary support through an independent education grant from Lilly.

This continuing education activity will be provided by AffinityCE and MedAll. This activity will provide continuing education credit for physicians. A statement of participation is available to other attendees.

Disclosures

Tammie Benzinger, MD, PhD has disclosed financial interests or relationships within the past 24 months with the following ineligible companies: Research Support / Grants: NIH/NIA, Alzheimer’s Association, GHR Foundation, Anonymous Foundation, Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) Trials Unit (TU) Pharma Consortium, Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, NIH-AMP, American Society for Neuroradiology, Eli Lily/Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, LMI/Lantheus, Siemens, Hyperfine; Clinical Trials (Investigator): Eli Lilly, Roche, Biogen, J&J, Eisai; Consulting/Advisory Board: Biogen, Eisai, Lilly, Bristol Myers, J&J, Merck, Siemens; Travel: J&J, Eisai.

Dr. Benzinger intends to discuss non-FDA uses of drug products and/or devices only in relation to products for which she has no financial relationships. She will disclose to the audience when this discussion takes place.

These disclosures are made in accordance with ACCME standards to ensure transparency and objectivity in continuing education.

AffinityCE staff, MedAll staff, as well as planners and reviewers, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

AffinityCE adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CME activity, including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others, are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. Relevant financial relationships were mitigated by the peer review of content by non-conflicted reviewers prior to the commencement of the program.

Activity Accreditation for Health Professions

Physicians

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Physician Assistants

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physician assistants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nurse Practitioners

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and MedAll. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AffinityCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Nurse practitioners should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nurses & Other Professionals

All other health care professionals completing this continuing education activity will be issued a statement of participation indicating the number of hours of continuing education credit. This may be used for professional education CE credit. Please consult your accrediting organization or licensing board for their acceptance of this CE activity.

System Requirements

Mobile device (e.g., large-format smart phone; laptop or tablet computer) or desktop computer with a video display of at least 1024 × 768 pixels at 24-bit color depth, capable of connecting to the Internet at broadband or faster speeds, with a current version Internet browser and popular document viewing software (e.g., Microsoft Office, PDF viewer, image viewer) installed. Support for streaming or downloadable audio-visual materials (e.g., streaming MP4, MP3 audio) in hardware and software may be required to view, review, or participate in portions of the program.

Unapproved and/or off-label use disclosure

AffinityCE/MedAll requires CE faculty to disclose to the participants:

When products or procedures being discussed are off-label, unlabeled, experimental, and/or investigational (not US Food and Drug Administration [FDA] approved); and
Any limitations on the information presented, such as data that are preliminary or that represent ongoing research, interim analyses, and/or unsupported opinion.

CME Inquiries

For all CME policy-related inquiries, please contact us at ce@affinityced.com.

Participation Costs

There is no cost to participate in this program.

This continuing education activity is active starting February 11th 2026 and will expire on December 31st 2026. Estimated time to complete this activity: 15 minutes.

Learning objectives

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

Integrate dose-modification tactics and MRI scheduling protocols into treatment plans for patients on anti-amyloid therapies.

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Computer generated transcript

Warning!
The following transcript was generated automatically from the content and has not been checked or corrected manually.

My name is Tammy Benzinger, and I am a professor of neuroradiology at Washington University in Saint Louis. These are my disclosures. Um, I do have research support primarily from the NIH, but I participate in, um, clinical trials from a, a number of pharma companies and I've been a consultant as well. So, um, what we're talking about today are designing individualized treatment plans for early Alzheimer's, balancing patient caregiver goals with ARIA risk mitigation strategies, um, applying shared decision-making principles. Um, what I'm gonna go into in more detail now is accurately detecting and classifying early ARIA, both the edema, ARAE, and the hemorrhages, AEAH. By MRI or by symptom recognition. The integration of dose modification tactics and MRI scheduling protocols into treatment plans for patients on anti-amyloid therapies. And then we'll wrap up with Dr. Dickerson again talking about the implementation of multidisciplinary RAA response protocols, including urgent radiology communications, um, electronic medical record alerts, and cross-specialty coordination. So let's get into this in a little more detail in terms of management of AAA. So I'm gonna talk about the dose modification tactics and MRI scheduling protocols in treatment plans. And we'll start this with another polling question. So a patient with prior REAH undergoes a reassessment MRI. The patient is currently asymptomatic, but the MRI reveals new moderate RAE. What is the appropriate next step? Um, continue dosing. Continue dosing but switch to monthly MRIs, suspend dosing, permanently discontinue treatment, or administer prophylactic steroids and continue dosing. So I'll give you a second to answer that. All right. Thank you. So, um, grading scales, um, so this is also taken from the FDA labels, and I think it's important to put into mind. So when we talk about sympt those symptoms of aria, like the headache, the visual changes, um, these get classified as mild, moderate, and severe. And in this case, it has to do with how it impacts your daily living. So mild would be Typically, you, you ask them, you, we, we find Aria on the scan, and we say, have you been having symptoms? And they'll say, no, and then you list them specifically, and you'll say, well, what about headaches? And they'll say, oh yes, I been having a headache every day this week. Um, so it's not disrupting their daily activity, but it is present. Moderate would be if it was sufficient to reduce or alter their daily activities. So I'm feeling dizzy or having blurry vision, so I don't feel comfortable driving to the grocery store. And then finally, severe would be incapacitating, inability to work, or perform normal daily activities. So, let's go through this together. So this is taken from the current danumab FDA label. And again, um, each of the labels has slight variations, and so you'll want to make sure to refer to that specifically. But I'd like to walk you through this one just as an example. So we've talked about the ARIAE and the AA H MRI grading, and that was based on those areas of edema and the microhemorrrrhages, and the cirrhosis. So if someone comes in and we find mild RAE, what then has to happen on the clinical side is to line that up with the symptoms being asymptomatic, mild, moderate, or severe. And so you can see that um for mild RAE it's possible to continue dosing. Um, if they are asymptomatic. Um, but if they're having moderate or severe symptomatic, that's a reason to suspend the dosing. Similarly, if we talk about the RAH, if the findings are mild on the exam and it's asymptomatic, it's possible to continue it. But if there are any symptoms at all, so H is what we really worry about with these hemorrhages, that's a reason to suspend that dosing. Um, for the radiologist's perspective, also, you can see, basically, it's gonna be really important to communicate this finding because if they're scheduled for an infusion the same day or the next day, getting them that information so that they can assess the symptoms and put this together is really important to be done in a timely fashion. And so, I just wanted to show you how this comes together. We can now modify this timeline a little bit more, is If you started to see the findings on the MRI scan, you have to keep getting an MRI every month, and you're gonna keep doing that until the RAAE, all of the edema, has resolved, and the hemorrhages are no longer accumulating. And this is gonna be true. Whether or not they're continuing with dosing, um, because it can get worse even in the absence of continued dosing, and you don't, what you don't want is for someone to be at home and having the, this area it's getting worse and worse without having that monitoring or alert. So we wanna be able to, um, be able to identify these patients early. And follow them and treat them appropriately. And this is one of the most common um errors that I have seen now that we have it in clinical therapy is, um, failure to consistently get those one-month scans until it resolves. So there's a thought process out there that, oh, I can, I've stopped the medication, so I don't need to get another MRI scan. And that's, that's not true. It can get worse. Even when the dose is, has been suspended. And so that's really important to remember.