Predicting Survival in Dementia With Lewy Bodies With Hippocampal Volumetry.

Background: The clinical course of dementia with Lewy bodies patients is heterogeneous. The ability to more accurately prognosticate survival is important.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate hippocampal volume as a predictor of survival in dementia with Lewy bodies patients.

Early Postmenopausal Transdermal 17β-Estradiol Therapy and Amyloid-β Deposition.

Background: It remains controversial whether hormone therapy in recently postmenopausal women modifies the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objective: To investigate the effects of hormone therapy on amyloid-β deposition in recently postmenopausal women.

Methods: Participants within 5-36 months past menopause in the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study, a randomized, double blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial, were randomized to: 1) 0.

Plasma sphingolipid changes with autopsy-confirmed Lewy Body or Alzheimer's pathology.

Introduction: The clinical and pathological phenotypes of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) often overlap. We examined whether plasma lipids differed among individuals with autopsy-confirmed Lewy Body pathology or AD pathology.

Methods: We identified four groups with available plasma two years prior to death: high (n=12) and intermediate likelihood DLB (n=14) based on the third report of the DLB consortium; dementia with Alzheimer's pathology (AD; n=18); and cognitively normal with normal aging pathology (n=21).

An MRI-Based Atlas for Correlation of Imaging and Pathologic Findings in Alzheimer's Disease.

Background And Purpose: Pathologic diagnosis is the gold standard in evaluating imaging measures developed as biomarkers for pathologically defined disorders. A brain MRI atlas representing autopsy-sampled tissue can be used to directly compare imaging and pathology findings. Our objective was to develop a brain MRI atlas representing the cortical regions that are routinely sampled at autopsy for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Impaired Cognition and Brain Atrophy Decades After Hypertensive Pregnancy Disorders.

Background: Hypertensive pregnancy disorders have been associated with subjective cognitive complaints or brain white-matter lesions 5 to 10 years after the hypertensive pregnancy. The long-term effects of hypertensive pregnancies on brain structure and cognitive function remain unknown.

Methods And Results: This study included 1279 women who participated in the Family Blood Pressure Project Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study.

Regional T relaxation time constants in Ex vivo human brain: Longitudinal effects of formalin exposure.

Purpose: Relaxation time constants are useful as markers of tissue properties. Imaging ex vivo tissue is done for research purposes; however, T relaxation time constants are altered by tissue fixation in a time-dependent manner. This study investigates regional changes in T relaxation time constants in ex vivo brain tissue over 6 months of fixation.

Atrial fibrillation, cognitive impairment, and neuroimaging.

Introduction: The objective of our study was to investigate cross-sectional associations of atrial fibrillation with neuroimaging measures of cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease and their interactions with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging scans of individuals from a population-based study were analyzed for infarctions, total gray matter, and hippocampal and white matter hyperintensity volumes. A subsample underwent positron emission tomography imaging.

Characterizing White Matter Tract Degeneration in Syndromic Variants of Alzheimer's Disease: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.

Background: Different clinical syndromes can arise from Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology, including dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT), logopenic primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA), and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).

Objective: To assess similarities and differences in patterns of white matter tract degeneration across these syndromic variants of AD.

Methods: Sixty-four subjects (22 DAT, 24 lvPPA, and 18 PCA) that had diffusion tensor imaging and showed amyloid-β deposition on PET were assessed in this case-control study.

Multiple sclerosis masquerading as Alzheimer-type dementia: Clinical, radiological and pathological findings.

Background And Objectives: We report a comprehensive clinical, radiological, neuropsychometric and pathological evaluation of a woman with a clinical diagnosis of AD dementia (ADem), but whose autopsy demonstrated widespread demyelination, without Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology.

Methods And Results: Initial neuropsychometric evaluation suggested amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Serial magnetic resonance images (MRI) images demonstrated the rate of increase in her ventricular volume was comparable to that of 46 subjects with aMCI who progressed to ADem, without accumulating white matter disease.

Role of β-Amyloidosis and Neurodegeneration in Subsequent Imaging Changes in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Importance: To understand how a model of Alzheimer disease pathophysiology based on β-amyloidosis and neurodegeneration predicts the regional anatomic expansion of hypometabolism and atrophy in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Objective: To define the role of β-amyloidosis and neurodegeneration in the subsequent progression of topographic cortical structural and metabolic changes in MCI.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Longitudinal, observational study with serial brain imaging conducted from March 28, 2006, to January 6, 2015, using a population-based cohort.

Cerebral Microbleeds, CSF p-Tau, and Cognitive Decline: Significance of Anatomic Distribution.

Background And Purpose: Cerebral microbleeds are associated with aging, hypertension, and Alzheimer disease. Microbleeds in a lobar distribution are believed to reflect underlying amyloid angiopathy, whereas microbleeds in the deep gray matter and infratentorial brain are commonly seen with hypertension. However, it is unknown how microbleeds in either distribution are related to Alzheimer pathogenesis.

Frequency and topography of cerebral microbleeds in dementia with Lewy bodies compared to Alzheimer's disease.

Aim: To determine the frequency and topographic distribution of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in comparison to CMBs in Alzheimer disease dementia (AD).

Methods: Consecutive probable DLB (n = 23) patients who underwent 3-T T2* weighted gradient-recalled-echo MRI, and age and gender matched probable Alzheimer's disease patients (n = 46) were compared for the frequency and location of CMBs.

Results: The frequency of one or more CMBs was similar among patients with DLB (30%) and AD (24%).

Magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative 2.

Introduction: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is now in its 10th year. The primary objective of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) core of ADNI has been to improve methods for clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders.

Methods: We review the contributions of the MRI core from present and past cycles of ADNI (ADNI-1, -Grand Opportunity and -2).

White matter integrity in dementia with Lewy bodies: a voxel-based analysis of diffusion tensor imaging.

Many patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) have overlapping Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related pathology, which may contribute to white matter (WM) diffusivity alterations on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Consecutive patients with DLB (n = 30), age- and sex-matched AD patients (n = 30), and cognitively normal controls (n = 60) were recruited. All subjects underwent DTI, 18F 2-fluoro-deoxy-d-glucose, and (11)C Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography scans.

Clinicopathologic and 11C-Pittsburgh compound B implications of Thal amyloid phase across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum.

Thal amyloid phase, which describes the pattern of progressive amyloid-β plaque deposition in Alzheimer's disease, was incorporated into the latest National Institute of Ageing - Alzheimer's Association neuropathologic assessment guidelines. Amyloid biomarkers (positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid) were included in clinical diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease dementia published by the National Institute of Ageing - Alzheimer's Association and the International Work group. Our first goal was to evaluate the correspondence of Thal amyloid phase to Braak tangle stage and ante-mortem clinical characteristics in a large autopsy cohort.

Microbleeds in atypical presentations of Alzheimer's disease: a comparison to dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Background: Microbleeds in the brain have been shown to occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD), affecting approximately a third of subjects that present with typical dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). However, little is known about the frequency or distribution of microbleeds in subjects with AD that present with atypical clinical presentations.

Objective: To determine whether the frequency and regional distribution of microbleeds in atypical AD differs from that observed in subjects with DAT, and to determine whether microbleeds in atypical AD are associated with age, demographics, or cognitive impairment.

Vascular and amyloid pathologies are independent predictors of cognitive decline in normal elderly.

Our primary objective was to investigate a biomarker driven model for the interrelationships between vascular disease pathology, amyloid pathology, and longitudinal cognitive decline in cognitively normal elderly subjects between 70 and 90 years of age. Our secondary objective was to investigate the beneficial effect of cognitive reserve on these interrelationships. We used brain amyloid-β load measured using Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography as a marker for amyloid pathology.

Vascular imaging abnormalities and cognition: mediation by cortical volume in nondemented individuals: atherosclerosis risk in communities-neurocognitive study.

Background And Purpose: The relationships between cerebrovascular lesions visible on imaging and cognition are complex. We explored the possibility that the cerebral cortical volume mediated these relationships.

Methods: Total of 1906 nondemented participants (59% women; 25% African-American; mean age, 76.

Early Alzheimer's disease neuropathology detected by proton MR spectroscopy.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) is sensitive to early neurodegenerative processes associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although (1)H-MRS metabolite ratios of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr), NAA/myoinositol (mI), and mI/Cr measured in the posterior cingulate gyrus reveal evidence of disease progression in AD, pathologic underpinnings of the (1)H-MRS metabolite changes in AD are unknown. Pathologically diagnosed human cases ranging from no likelihood to high likelihood AD (n = 41, 16 females and 25 males) who underwent antemortem (1)H-MRS of the posterior cingulate gyrus at 3 tesla were included in this study.

Independent comparison of CogState computerized testing and a standard cognitive battery with neuroimaging.

Background: Inexpensive, non-invasive tools for assessing Alzheimer-type pathophysiologies are needed. Computerized cognitive assessments are prime candidates.

Methods: Cognitively normal participants, aged 51-71, with magnetic resonance imaging, fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), amyloid PET, CogState computerized cognitive assessment, and standard neuropsychological tests were included.

Fractional anisotropy of the fornix and hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer's disease.

Decrease in the directionality of water diffusion measured with fractional anisotropy (FA) on diffusion tensor imaging has been linked to loss of myelin and axons in the white matter. Fornix FA is consistently decreased in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Furthermore, decreased fornix FA is one of the earliest MRI abnormalities observed in cognitively normal individuals who are at an increased risk for AD, such as in pre-symptomatic carriers of familial AD mutations and in pre-clinical AD.

Chiari 1 Malformation Presenting as Central Sleep Apnea during Pregnancy: A Case Report, Treatment Considerations, and Review of the Literature.

Purpose: Chiari malformation (CM) type-1 frequently causes obstructive or central sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in both adults and children, although SDB is relatively rare as a presenting manifestation in the absence of other neurological symptoms. The definitive treatment of symptomatic CM is surgical decompression. We report a case that is, to our knowledge, a novel manifestation of central sleep apnea (CSA) due to CM type-1 with severe exacerbation and initial clinical presentation during pregnancy.