Causes and Rates of 30-day Readmissions after Percutaneous Transhepatic Biliary Drainage Procedure.

Purpose To investigate rates and causes of 30-day readmission for patients who undergo percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) procedures. Materials and Methods In this retrospective study, PTBD procedures performed at a tertiary care institution (June 2008 to May 2013) were reviewed. For each patient, the first 30-day readmission was used to determine cause of readmission.

Brain atrophy rates in first degree relatives at risk for Alzheimer's.

A positive family history (FH) raises the risk for late-onset Alzheimer's disease though, other than the known risk conferred by apolipoprotein ε4 (ApoE4), much of the genetic variance remains unexplained. We examined the effect of family history on longitudinal regional brain atrophy rates in 184 subjects (42% FH+, mean age 79.9) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) enrolled in a national biomarker study.

Educational attainment and hippocampal atrophy in the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative cohort.

Introduction: Subjects with higher cognitive reserve (CR) may be at a lower risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the neural mechanisms underlying this are not known. Hippocampal volume loss is an early event in AD that triggers cognitive decline.

Materials And Methods: Regression analyses of the effects of education on MRI-measured baseline HV in 675 subjects (201 normal, 329 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 146 subjects with mild AD), adjusting for age, gender, APOE ɛ4 status and intracranial volume (ICV).

Mapping the effect of the apolipoprotein E genotype on 4-year atrophy rates in an Alzheimer disease-related brain network.

Purpose: To determine the effect of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype on atrophy rates of specific brain gray matter regions hypothesized to be key components of cognitive networks disrupted in Alzheimer disease.

Materials And Methods: The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) was approved by the institutional review boards of all participating sites. All subjects and their legal representatives gave written informed consent prior to data collection.

Mapping the effects of ApoE4, age and cognitive status on 18F-florbetapir PET measured regional cortical patterns of beta-amyloid density and growth.

Background: Although it is well known that many clinical and genetic factors have been associated with beta-amyloid deposition, few studies have examined the interactions of such factors across different stages of Alzheimer's pathogenesis.

Methods: We used 18F-florbetapir F18 PET imaging to quantify neuritic beta-amyloid plaque density across four cortical regions in 602 elderly (55-94 years) subjects from the national ADNI biomarker study. The group comprised of 194 normal elderly, 212 early mild cognitive impairment [EMCI], 132 late mild cognitive impairment [LMCI], and 64 mild Alzheimer's (AD).

Prevalence of Alzheimer's pathologic endophenotypes in asymptomatic and mildly impaired first-degree relatives.

Objective: A positive family history (FH) is a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our aim was to examine the effects of FH on pathological and neuronal loss biomarkers across the cognitive spectrum.

Design: Cross-sectional analyses of data from a national biomarker study.

Dissecting the gene dose-effects of the APOE ε4 and ε2 alleles on hippocampal volumes in aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To investigate whether there is a specific dose-dependent effect of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 and ε2 alleles on hippocampal volume, across the cognitive spectrum, from normal aging to Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

Materials And Methods: We analyzed MR and genetic data on 662 patients from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database-198 cognitively normal controls (CN), 321 mild-cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects, and 143 AD subjects-looking for dose-dependent effects of the ε4 and ε2 alleles on hippocampal volumes. Volumes were measured using a fully-automated algorithm applied to high resolution T1-weighted MR images.