Pattern of progression in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with ramucirumab.

Background & Aims: Radiological progression patterns to first-line sorafenib have been associated with post-progression and overall survival in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, but these associations remain unknown for therapies in second- and later-line settings. This post hoc analysis of REACH and REACH-2 examined outcomes by radiological progression patterns in the second-line setting of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with ramucirumab or placebo.

Methods: Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, Child-Pugh A and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status 0 or 1 with prior sorafenib were randomized to receive ramucirumab 8mg/kg or placebo every 2 weeks.

Shared neural substrates of cognitive function and postural control in older adults.

Introduction: Poor cognitive function and postural control co-occur in older adults. It is unclear whether they share neural substrates.

Methods: Postural sway error during a novel visual tracking (VT) condition and gray matter volume (GMV) were compared between participants with normal cognition (NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or dementia (n = 179, mean age 82, 56% females, 56% white).

Influence of Striatal Dopamine, Cerebral Small Vessel Disease, and Other Risk Factors on Age-Related Parkinsonian Motor Signs.

Objective: Parkinsonian motor signs are common and disabling in older adults without Parkinson's disease (PD), but its risk factors are not completely understood. We assessed the influence of striatal dopamine levels, cerebral small vessel disease, and other factors on age-related parkinsonian motor signs in non-PD adults.

Methods: Striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) binding was quantified via [11C]-CFT positron emission tomography in 87 neurologically intact adults (20-85 years, 57.

Associations of Usual Pace and Complex Task Gait Speeds With Incident Mobility Disability.

Background/objectives: To assess whether gait speed under complex conditions predicts long-term risk for mobility disability as well as or better than usual-pace gait speed.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting/participants: Subsample of Health Aging and Body Composition study with follow-up from 2002 to 2003 to 2010 to 2011, including 337 community-dwelling adults (mean age = 78.

Complex Walking Tasks and Risk for Cognitive Decline in High Functioning Older Adults.

Background: Performance on complex walking tasks may provide a screen for future cognitive decline.

Objective: To identify walking tasks that are most strongly associated with subsequent cognitive decline.

Methods: Community-dwelling older adults with Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) >85 at baseline (n = 223; mean age = 78.

Neuroimaging correlates of lateral postural control in older ambulatory adults.

Background: In older adults, impaired postural control contributes to falls, a major source of morbidity. Understanding central mechanisms may help identify individuals at risk for impaired postural control.

Aims: To determine the relationship between gray matter volume (GMV), white matter hyperintensities (WMH), mean diffusivity (MD), and fractional anisotropy (FA) with lateral postural control.

Dopamine-Related Genotypes and Physical Activity Change During an Intervention: The Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders Study.

Objectives: To determine whether intervention-induced physical activity (PA) changes in sedentary older adults differed according to dopamine-related genotype.

Design: Randomized clinical trial (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders Trial (2010-13)).

Setting: Multicenter study, 8 U.

Longitudinal changes in physical function and physical activity in older adults.

Background: physical function (PF) and physical activity (PA) both decline as adults age and have been linked to negative outcomes, including dementia, depression and cardiovascular diseases. Although declines in each are associated with numerous negative outcomes, the longitudinal relationship between these two measures is unclear.

Objective: to examine the dynamic, bidirectional associations between declines in PF and PA.

Long-term changes in retinal vascular diameter and cognitive impairment in type 1 diabetes.

Objective: To assess associations between cognitive impairment and longitudinal changes in retinal microvasculature, over 18 years, in adults with type 1 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: Participants of the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study received ≥3 fundus photographs between baseline (1986-1988) and time of cognitive assessment (2010-2015: N = 119; 52% male; mean age and type 1 diabetes duration 43 and 34 years, respectively). Central retinal arteriolar equivalent and central retinal venular equivalent were estimated via computer-based methods; overall magnitude and speed of narrowing were quantified as cumulative average and slope, respectively.

Longitudinal Associations Between Walking Speed and Amount of Self-reported Time Spent Walking Over a 9-Year Period in Older Women and Men.

Background: Age-related limitations in mobility and decreased physical activity appear to be linked cross-sectionally; however, large-scale, longitudinal analyses of the associations between age-related changes in mobility and engagement in physical activity are lacking. In this longitudinal study, we hypothesized that early mobility limitations would contribute to later decreases in physical activity to a larger degree than the reciprocal association of early decreases in physical activity to later mobility limitations.

Methods: Participants were 2,876 initially well-functioning community-dwelling older adults (aged 70-79 years at baseline; 52% women; 39% black) studied over a 9-year period.

Slowing gait and risk for cognitive impairment: The hippocampus as a shared neural substrate.

Objective: To identify the shared neuroimaging signature of gait slowing and cognitive impairment.

Methods: We assessed a cohort of older adults (n = 175, mean age 73 years, 57% female, 65% white) with repeated measures of gait speed over 14 years, MRI for gray matter volume (GMV) at year 10 or 11, and adjudicated cognitive status at year 14. Gait slowing was calculated by bayesian slopes corrected for intercepts, with higher values indicating faster decline.

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Genotype and Gait Speed Changes over 10 Years in Older Adults.

Objectives: To determine the association between catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genotype and 6-m walk time and to determine whether these associations are quadratic in nature, similar to previously reported U-shaped associations between dopamine and gait and cognition.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.

The Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on the Burden of Migraine: Results From the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked with migraine in prior studies.

Objective: To evaluate the individual and joint burdens of migraine and PTSD in a population-based cohort.

Methods: The National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R) is a general population study conducted in the United States from February 2001-April 2003.

Trajectories of peripheral interleukin-6, structure of the hippocampus, and cognitive impairment over 14 years in older adults.

We aimed to investigate if trajectory components (baseline level, slope, and variability) of peripheral interleukin-6 (IL-6) over time were related to cognitive impairment and smaller hippocampal volume and if hippocampal volume explained the associations between IL-6 and cognitive impairment. Multivariable regression models were used to test the association between IL-6 trajectory components with change in neuroimaging measures of the hippocampus and with cognitive impairment among 135 older adults (70-79 years at baseline) from the Healthy Brain Project over 14 years. IL-6 variability was positively associated with cognitive impairment (odds ratio [OR] = 5.

Cognitive resilience to apolipoprotein E ε4: contributing factors in black and white older adults.

Importance: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 is an established risk factor for cognitive decline and the development of dementia, but other factors may help to minimize its effects.

Objective: Using APOE ε4 as an indicator of high risk, we investigated factors associated with cognitive resilience among black and white older adults who are APOE ε4 carriers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Participants included 2487 community-dwelling older (aged 69-80 years at baseline) black and white adults examined at 2 community clinics in the prospective cohort Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study.

Trajectories of inflammatory markers and cognitive decline over 10 years.

We aimed to examine trajectories of inflammatory markers and cognitive decline over 10 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association between interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP) trajectory components (slope, variability, and baseline level) and cognitive decline among 1323 adults, aged 70-79 years in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. We tested for interactions by sex and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype.

Change in inflammatory markers and cognitive status in the oldest-old women from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

Objectives: To determine the association between interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-6 soluble receptor (sR), and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (sTNF-R1) and cognitive status in the oldest-old women.

Design: Twenty-year longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Four clinical sites in the United States.

Older adults with limited literacy are at increased risk for likely dementia.

Background: Low literacy is common among the elderly and possibly more reflective of educational attainment than years of school completed. We examined the association between literacy and risk of likely dementia in older adults.

Methods: Participants were 2,458 black and white elders (aged 71-82) from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study, who completed the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine and were followed for 8 years.

Anemia and risk of dementia in older adults: findings from the Health ABC study.

Objective: To determine whether anemia is associated with incident dementia in older adults.

Methods: We studied 2,552 older adults (mean age 76.1 years; 38.

How predictive of dementia are peripheral inflammatory markers in the elderly?

Dementia is a huge public health concern today owing to the exponentially increasing number of older adults it affects each year, and there has been a large number of investigators looking at potential biomarkers of dementia. Peripheral inflammatory markers have emerged as one potential class of markers that may be useful in predicting those individuals at a greater risk of developing dementia, or in expounding the underlying mechanisms or pathways of this complex disease. Although some evidence has been promising, indicating that peripheral inflammatory markers are indeed crucial in brain changes that occur in both normal aging and in dementia, results have been mixed on their usefulness for predicting dementia or cognitive decline in older adults.

The role of peripheral inflammatory markers in dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis.

Background: Studies that have investigated the association between markers of inflammation and risk of dementia are conflicting. Therefore, the researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies with the hypothesis that an increased level of peripheral proinflammatory markers would be associated with risk of all-cause dementia or Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: The researchers conducted a literature search of observational studies indexed in the PubMed and PsycInfo databases.

The demographic and medical correlates of plasma aβ40 and aβ42.

Plasma amyloid β-42 (Aβ42) and Aβ42/Aβ40 are increasingly recognized as biomarkers for dementia, with low levels indicating increased risk. Little is known about the demographic and medical correlates of plasma Aβ40 or Aβ42. In 997 community-dwelling, nondemented older adults from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study, we determined the cross-sectional association between a wide range of demographic and medical variables with Aβ40 and Aβ42.

Plasma beta amyloid level and depression in older adults.

Background: Older adults with depression have an increased risk of developing dementia. Low plasma beta-amyloid 42 (Aβ42) and Aβ42/Aβ40 have emerged as promising biomarkers of dementia. The association between depression and plasma Aβ is unclear.