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IC‐P‐089: Vascular and amyloid pathologies in memory clinic patients: Synergetic or independent?
Author(s) -
Freeze Whitney,
Burgmans Saartje,
Aalten Pauline,
Clerx Lies,
Vos Stephanie,
Gronenschild Ed,
Buchem Mark,
Grond Jeroen,
Barkhof Frederik,
Flier Wiesje M.,
Berckel Bart N.M.,
Ossenkoppele Rik,
Verbeek Marcel,
Olde Rikkert Marcel G.M.,
Backes Walter,
Verhey Frans R.J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.06.110
Subject(s) - dementia , hyperintensity , medicine , psychology , cognition , clinical dementia rating , verbal fluency test , alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative , cognitive decline , vascular dementia , neuropsychology , cardiology , magnetic resonance imaging , disease , neuroscience , radiology
Background: The locus coeruleus (LC) is a brainstem nucleus that has widespread projections to modulate states of attention. It has been shown that tau pathology is frequently seen in the LC in individual under 30 years of age, suggesting Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-associated tau pathology begins in the LC. The magnetic resonance (MR) T1-signal derived from neuromelanin (NM) is considered to be a surrogate maker for the neural density of the LC. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations of a cognitive function, years of school education, and MR signal of the LC. Methods:Subjects were 58 cognitively normal elderly subjects (69.4(60-79)y.o., MMSE mean(range): 28.8(25-30)) who underwent T1-wieghted high resolution MR imaging of the brain stem and 3D T1-weighted whole brain MR imaging. The brain stem image was coregistrated to the whole brain image and spatially normalized with DARTEL. The mean signal intensity of LC was calculated using regions of interest (ROI) that were placed on the hyperintensity derived from NM of the LC at -26.0 to -19.0 in Z coordinate in the MNI stereotactic space. The mean signal ratio (mSR) of the LC was calculated as mSR1⁄4(SLC–SDS)/SDS, where SLC and SDS are the signal intensities of the LC and superior cerebellar peduncle decussation, respectively. Single and multiple regression analyses were done for digit span backward score, age, years of school education (Education), and mSR. Results: The mSR declined a mean of 0.289 unit per year in a single regression analysis (p1⁄40.028). Digit span backward score had a positive association with mSR (p1⁄40.028, R̂21⁄40.083) in a single regression. In a multiple regression analysis to predict the digit span backward score, statistically significant terms were mSR (p1⁄40.026) and mSR x Education (p1⁄40.003). Adding the interaction term improved the goodness of fit from F1⁄45.095 (p1⁄40.028) to F1⁄47.921 (p1⁄40.001). The single term of Education was not significant (p1⁄40.071). Conclusions: The results suggest NM in the LC shows age-related decline. Higher educational attainment supports working memory and attention control tasks like digit span backward mainly through the interaction with the LC.