Objective: This is a cross-sectional study to evaluate whether β-amyloid-(Aβ)-PET positivity and cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) in patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) are regionally colocalized.
Methods: Ten patients with probable or possible CAA (73.3 ± 10.
: Asymmetric disease characteristics on neuroimaging are common in structural and functional imaging of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, a standardized clinical evaluation of asymmetric neuronal degeneration and its impact on clinical findings has only sporadically been investigated for F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (F-18-FDG-PET). This study aimed to evaluate the impact of lateralized neuronal degeneration on the detection of AD by detailed clinical testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Reserve is defined as the ability to maintain cognitive functions relatively well at a given level of pathology. Early life experiences such as education are associated with lower dementia risk in general. However, whether more years of education guards against the impact of brain alterations also in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has not been shown in a large patient collective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Amyloid-β accumulation was found to alter precuneus-based functional connectivity (FC) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, but its impact is less clear in subjective cognitive decline (SCD), which in combination with AD pathologic change is theorized to correspond to stage 2 of the Alzheimer's continuum in the 2018 NIA-AA research framework.
Objective: This study addresses how amyloid pathology relates to resting-state fMRI FC in SCD, especially focusing on the precuneus.
Methods: From the DELCODE cohort, two groups of 24 age- and gender-matched amyloid-positive (SCDAβ+) and amyloidnegative SCD (SCDβ-) patients were selected according to visual [18F]-Florbetaben (FBB) PET readings, and studied with resting-state fMRI.
Cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) is a common feature in patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). The correlation between β-amyloid and/or tau pathology and the occurrence of cSS is unclear. We report on an 80-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with probable CAA according to modified Boston criteria and underwent longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging, amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), and additional tau PET imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiffusion changes as determined by diffusion tensor imaging are potential indicators of microstructural lesions in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD), and AD dementia. Here we extended the scope of analysis toward subjective cognitive complaints as a pre-MCI at risk stage of AD. In a cohort of 271 participants of the prospective DELCODE study, including 93 healthy controls and 98 subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 45 MCI, and 35 AD dementia cases, we found reductions of fiber tract integrity in limbic and association fiber tracts in MCI and AD dementia compared with controls in a tract-based analysis (p < 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Many predictive or influencing factors have emerged in investigations of the cognitive reserve model of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). For example, neuronal injury, which correlates with cognitive decline in AD, can be assessed by [F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission-tomography (FDG-PET), structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and total tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), all according to the A/T/N-classification. The aim of this study was to calculate residual cognitive performance based on neuronal injury biomarkers as a surrogate of cognitive reserve, and to test the predictive value of this index for the individual clinical course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) has been proposed as a pre-MCI at-risk condition of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Current research is focusing on a refined assessment of specific SCD features associated with increased risk for AD, as proposed in the SCD-plus criteria. We developed a structured interview (SCD-I) for the assessment of these features and tested their relationship with AD biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCortical superficial siderosis (cSS) represents a key neuroimaging marker of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) that is associated with intracranial hemorrhages and cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, the association between cSS and core cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for dementia remain unclear. One hundred and one patients with probable (79%, 80/101) or possible (21%, 21/101) CAA according to the modified Boston criteria and mild cognitive impairment according to Petersen criteria were prospectively included between 2011 and 2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Alzheimer's disease (AD), a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the gene encoding brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is associated with worse impact of primary AD pathology (beta-amyloid, Aβ) on neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, rendering BDNF an important modulating factor of cognitive impairment in AD. However, the effect of BDNF on functional networks that may underlie cognitive impairment in AD is poorly understood. Using a cross-validation approach, we first explored in subjects with autosomal dominant AD (ADAD) from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) the effect of BDNF on resting-state fMRI assessed functional networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the prognostic relevance of cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) in patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).
Methods: A total of 302 patients fulfilling clinical and imaging criteria for probable or possible CAA were enrolled into a prospective, multicenter cohort study and followed for 12 months. cSS was assessed on T2*/susceptibility-weighted imaging MRI.
Resting-state fMRI studies demonstrated temporally synchronous fluctuations in brain activity among ensembles of brain regions, suggesting the existence of intrinsic functional networks. A spatial match between some of the resting-state networks and regional brain activation during cognitive tasks has been noted, suggesting that resting-state networks support particular cognitive abilities. However, the spatial match and predictive value of any resting-state network and regional brain activation during episodic memory is only poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFF-18-fluordeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is widely used for discriminative diagnosis of tau-positive atypical parkinsonian syndromes (T+APS). This approach now stands to be augmented with more specific tau tracers. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed a large clinical routine dataset of FDG-PET images for evaluation of the strengths and limitations of stand-alone FDG-PET.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alterations of intrinsic networks from resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) have been suggested as functional biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of multicenter rs-fMRI for prodromal and preclinical stages of AD.
Methods: We determined rs-fMRI functional connectivity based on Pearson's correlation coefficients and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation in people with subjective cognitive decline, people with mild cognitive impairment, and people with AD dementia compared with healthy controls.
Background: Recent evidence derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggests that functional hubs (i.e., highly connected brain regions) are important for mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with Alzheimer's disease vary in their ability to sustain cognitive abilities in the presence of brain pathology. A major open question is which brain mechanisms may support higher reserve capacity, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Deep phenotyping and longitudinal assessment of predementia at-risk states of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are required to define populations and outcomes for dementia prevention trials. Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a pre-mild cognitive impairment (pre-MCI) at-risk state of dementia, which emerges as a highly promising target for AD prevention.
Methods: The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) is conducting the multicenter DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE), which focuses on the characterization of SCD in patients recruited from memory clinics.
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
December 2017
Purpose: In recent years, several [F]-labeled amyloid-PET tracers have been developed and have obtained clinical approval. Despite their widespread scientific use, studies in routine clinical settings are limited. We therefore investigated the impact of [F]-florbetaben (FBB)-PET on the diagnostic management of patients with suspected dementia that was still unclarified after [F]-fluordeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious studies have demonstrated increased tau plasma levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD. Much less is known whether increased tau plasma levels can already be detected in the pre-MCI stage of subjective cognitive decline (SCD). In the present study we measured tau plasma levels in 111 SCD patients and 134 age- and gender-matched cognitively healthy controls participating in the DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases) longitudinal study on cognition and dementia (DELCODE).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReserve refers to the phenomenon of relatively preserved cognition in disproportion to the extent of neuropathology, e.g., in Alzheimer's disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReserve in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is defined as maintaining cognition at a relatively high level in the presence of neurodegeneration, an ability often associated with higher education among other life factors. Recent evidence suggests that higher resting-state functional connectivity within the frontoparietal control network, specifically the left frontal cortex (LFC) hub, contributes to higher reserve. Following up these previous resting-state fMRI findings, we probed memory-task related functional connectivity of the LFC hub as a neural substrate of reserve.
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