Aim
To assess the clinical utility of FDG-PET as a diagnostic aid for differentiating Alzheimer’s disease (AD; both typical and atypical forms), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), frontotemporal lobar ...degeneration (FTLD), vascular dementia (VaD) and non-degenerative pseudodementia.
Methods
A comprehensive literature search was conducted using the PICO model to extract evidence from relevant studies. An expert panel then voted on six different diagnostic scenarios using the Delphi method.
Results
The level of empirical study evidence for the use of FDG-PET was considered good for the discrimination of DLB and AD; fair for discriminating FTLD from AD; poor for atypical AD; and lacking for discriminating DLB from FTLD, AD from VaD, and for pseudodementia. Delphi voting led to consensus in all scenarios within two iterations. Panellists supported the use of FDG-PET for all PICOs—including those where study evidence was poor or lacking—based on its negative predictive value and on the assistance it provides when typical patterns of hypometabolism for a given diagnosis are observed.
Conclusion
Although there is an overall lack of evidence on which to base strong recommendations, it was generally concluded that FDG-PET has a diagnostic role in all scenarios. Prospective studies targeting diagnostically uncertain patients for assessing the added value of FDG-PET would be highly desirable.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, VSZLJ, ZAGLJ
Empirical evidence suggests that a fair proportion of dementia cases are preventable, that some preventive actions can be taken immediately, and others may soon be implemented. Primary prevention may ...target cognitively normal persons with modifiable risk factors through lifestyle and multiple domain interventions (including general cardiovascular health). While the effect on individuals may be modest, it might have a large societal impact by decreasing overall dementia incidence by up to 35%. Secondary prevention will target cognitively normal persons at high risk of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease pathology with future anti‐amyloid, anti‐tau, or other drugs. This approach is likely to have major benefits to both individuals and society. Memory clinics will need structural and functional changes to adapt to novel technologies and increased patients’ demands, and brand‐new services may need to be developed with specific skills on risk profiling, risk communication, and personalized risk reduction plans.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract The pathway leading from beta-amyloid deposition to cognitive impairment is believed to be a cornerstone of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, what drives amyloid ...build-up in sporadic non-genetic cases of AD is still unknown. AD brains feature an inflammatory reaction around amyloid plaques, and a specific subset of the gut microbiota (GMB) may promote brain inflammation. We investigated the possible role of the GMB in AD pathogenesis by studying the association of brain amyloidosis with (i) GMB taxa with pro- and anti-inflammatory activity, and (ii) peripheral inflammation in cognitively impaired patients. We measured the stool abundance of selected bacterial GMB taxa ( Escherichia/Shigella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Eubacterium rectale, Eubacterium hallii, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Bacteroides fragilis ) and the blood expression levels of cytokines (pro-inflammatory cytokines: CXCL2, CXCL10, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, IL-8, NLRP3, TNF-α; anti-inflammatory cytokines: IL-4, IL-10, IL-13) in cognitively impaired patients with (n=40, Amy+) and with no brain amyloidosis (n=33, Amy-), and also in a group of controls (n=10, no brain amyloidosis and no cognitive impairment, HC). Amy+ patients showed higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, CXCL2, NLRP3 and IL-1β) compared to both controls and to Amy- patients. A reduction of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was observed in Amy+ versus Amy-. Amy+ showed lower abundance of Eubacterium rectale and higher abundance of Escherichia/Shigella as compared to both HC (Fold Change, FC=-9.6, p<0.001 and FC=+12.8, p<0.001, respectively ) and to Amy- (FC=-7.7, p<0.001 and FC=+7.4, p=0.003 ). A positive correlation was observed between pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, NLRP3 and CXCL2 with abundance of the inflammatory bacteria taxon Escherichia/Shigella (rho=0.60, p<0.001; rho=0.57, p<0.001; and rho=0.30, p=0.007, respectively) and a negative correlation with the anti-inflammatory Eubacterium rectale ( rho=-0.48, p<0.001; rho=-0.25, p=0.024; rho=-0.49, p<0.001). Our data indicate that an increase in the abundance of a pro-inflammatory GMB taxon, Escherichia/Shigella , and a reduction in the abundance of an anti-inflammatory taxon, Eubacterium rectale , are possibly associated with a peripheral inflammatory state in patients with cognitive impairment and brain amyloidosis. A possible causal relation between GMB-related inflammation and amyloidosis deserves further investigation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
We assessed the relationship of gamma oscillations with tau deposition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other cognitive diseases, as both are altered during the disease course and relate to ...neurodegeneration. We retrospectively analyzed data from 7 AD, tau positive patients and 9 tau negative patients, who underwent cerebral amyloid PET and tau PET, and EEG within 12 months. Relative gamma power was higher in tau positive (AD) patients than in tau negative patients (p < .05). In tau positive AD patients, tau burden was associated with a linear increase in gamma power (p < .05), while no association was present in the tau negative group nor with amyloid-β burden in either group. Thus, increase in the gamma power might represent a novel biomarker for tau driven neurodegeneration.
•Relative gamma power is higher in AD patients with a positive cerebral tau PET.•Gamma power linearly correlates with tau burden on tau PET in AD patients.•Tau-positive patients show increased gamma power in frontal and parietal areas.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
36.
One step towards dementia prevention Frisoni, Giovanni B; Jessen, Frank
Lancet neurology,
April 2018, 2018-04-00, 20180401, Volume:
17, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The current model of Alzheimer disease (AD) stipulates that brain amyloidosis biomarkers turn abnormal earliest, followed by cortical hypometabolism, and finally brain atrophy ones. The aim of this ...study is to provide clinical evidence of the model in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
A total of 73 patients with MCI from 3 European memory clinics were included. Brain amyloidosis was assessed by CSF Aβ42 concentration, cortical metabolism by an index of temporoparietal hypometabolism on FDG-PET, and brain atrophy by automated hippocampal volume. Patients were divided into groups based on biomarker positivity: 1) Aβ42- FDG-PET- Hippo-, 2) Aβ42+ FDG-PET- Hippo-, 3) Aβ42 + FDG-PET + Hippo-, 4) Aβ42 + FDG-PET+ Hippo+, and 5) any other combination not in line with the model. Measures of validity were prevalence of group 5, increasing incidence of progression to dementia with increasing biological severity, and decreasing conversion time.
When patients with MCI underwent clinical follow-up, 29 progressed to dementia, while 44 remained stable. A total of 26% of patients were in group 5. Incident dementia was increasing with greater biological severity in groups 1 to 5 from 4% to 27%, 64%, and 100% (p for trend < 0.0001), and occurred increasingly earlier (p for trend = 0.024).
The core biomarker pattern is in line with the current pathophysiologic model of AD. Fully normal and fully abnormal pattern is associated with exceptional and universal development of dementia. Cases not in line might be due to atypical neurobiology or inaccurate thresholds for biomarker (ab)normality.
Normative modelling is an emerging method for quantifying how individuals deviate from the healthy populational pattern. Several machine learning models have been implemented to develop normative ...models to investigate brain disorders, including regression, support vector machines and Gaussian process models. With the advance of deep learning technology, the use of deep neural networks has also been proposed. In this study, we assessed normative models based on deep autoencoders using structural neuroimaging data from patients with Alzheimer's disease (n = 206) and mild cognitive impairment (n = 354). We first trained the autoencoder on an independent dataset (UK Biobank dataset) with 11,034 healthy controls. Then, we estimated how each patient deviated from this norm and established which brain regions were associated to this deviation. Finally, we compared the performance of our normative model against traditional classifiers. As expected, we found that patients exhibited deviations according to the severity of their clinical condition. The model identified medial temporal regions, including the hippocampus, and the ventricular system as critical regions for the calculation of the deviation score. Overall, the normative model had comparable cross-cohort generalizability to traditional classifiers. To promote open science, we are making all scripts and the trained models available to the wider research community.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
A critical and as-yet unmet need in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the discovery of peripheral small molecule biomarkers. Given that brain pathology precedes clinical symptom onset, we set out to test ...whether metabolites in blood associated with pathology as indexed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers.
This study analyzed 593 plasma samples selected from the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery study, of individuals who were cognitively healthy (n = 242), had mild cognitive impairment (n = 236), or had AD-type dementia (n = 115). Logistic regressions were carried out between plasma metabolites (n = 883) and CSF markers, magnetic resonance imaging, cognition, and clinical diagnosis.
Eight metabolites were associated with amyloid β and one with t-tau in CSF, these were primary fatty acid amides (PFAMs), lipokines, and amino acids. From these, PFAMs, glutamate, and aspartate also associated with hippocampal volume and memory.
PFAMs have been found increased and associated with amyloid β burden in CSF and clinical measures.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
To comprehensively identify the determinants of quality of life (QoL) in a population study sample of persons aged 18-50 and 50+.
In this observational, cross-sectional study, QoL was measured with ...the WHOQOL-AGE, a brief instrument designed to measure QoL in older adults. Eight hierarchical regression models were performed to identify determinants of QoL. Variables were entered in the following order: Sociodemographic; Health Habits; Chronic Conditions; Health State description; Vision and Hearing; Social Networks; Built Environment. In the final model, significant variables were retained. The final model was re-run using data from the three countries separately.
Complete data were available for 5639 participants, mean age 46.3 (SD 18.4). The final model accounted for 45% of QoL variation and the most relevant contribution was given by sociodemographic data (particularly age, education level and living in Finland: 17.9% explained QoL variation), chronic conditions (particularly depression: 4.6%) and a wide and rich social network (4.6%). Other determinants were presence of disabling pain, learning difficulties and visual problems, and living in usable house that is perceived as non-risky. Some variables were specifically associated to QoL in single countries: age in Poland, alcohol consumption in Spain, angina in Finland, depression in Spain, and self-reported sadness both in Finland and Poland, but not in Spain. Other were commonly associated to QoL: smoking status, bodily aches, being emotionally affected by health problems, good social network and home characteristics.
Our results highlight the importance of modifiable determinants of QoL, and provide public health indications that could support concrete actions at country level. In particular, smoking cessation, increasing the level of physical activity, improving social network ties and applying universal design approach to houses and environmental infrastructures could potentially increase QoL of ageing population.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK