Interaction of Alzheimer Disease and Traumatic Brain Injury on Cortical Thickness.

INTRODUCTION: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with an accelerated course of dementia, although biological relationships are incompletely understood. METHODS: The study examined 1124 participants, including 343 with Alzheimer disease (AD), 127 with AD with TBI, 266 cognitively normal adults with TBI, and 388 cognitively normal adults without TBI. Cortical thickness was quantified from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the interaction between AD and TBI on cortical thickness. RESULTS: Among those with AD, TBI was associated with an earlier age of AD onset but, counterintuitively, less cortical thinning in frontotemporal regions relative to non-AD controls. DISCUSSION: AD with TBI represents a distinct group from AD, likely with distinct pathologic contributions beyond gray matter loss. This finding has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of AD in the presence of TBI and indicates that models of AD, aging, and neural loss should account for TBI history.

Sex Differences in Cortical Thickness and Neuropsychiatric Symptom Burden Based on APOE4 Homozygosity in Alzheimer's Disease.

Sex differences in patterns of cortical thickness and neuropsychiatric symptom (NPS) burden were examined among individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and two copies (homozygote carriers) of the e4 allele of the apolipoprotein gene (APOE). A total of 752 participants with a clinical etiologic diagnosis of AD were selected from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database. Bayesian multilevel regression was used to examine both the within- and between-sex differences in gray-matter cortical thickness and total NPS burden associated with APOE homozygosity. Female homozygote carriers displayed a high probability of having reduced cortical thickness primarily in medial-lateral temporal regions and a greater burden of NPS, relative to both non-homozygous females and homozygous males. These findings support the notion that APOE4 status affects cortical thickness and symptom burden in men and women with AD differentially, with females showing more pronounced effects in brain areas known to be vulnerable in early AD. Future investigations should attempt to elucidate the proposed pattern of decline longitudinally.

History of traumatic brain injury is associated with increased grey-matter loss in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with greater long-term grey-matter loss in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: 85 patients with MCI were identified, including 26 with a previous history of traumatic brain injury (MCI[TBI-]) and 59 without (MCI[TBI+]). Cortical thickness was evaluated by segmenting T1-weighted MRI scans acquired longitudinally over a 2-year period. Bayesian multilevel modelling was used to evaluate group differences in baseline cortical thickness and longitudinal change, as well as group differences in neuropsychological measures of executive function. RESULTS: At baseline, the MCI[TBI+] group had less grey matter within right entorhinal, left medial orbitofrontal and inferior temporal cortex areas bilaterally. Longitudinally, the MCI[TBI+] group also exhibited greater longitudinal declines in left rostral middle frontal, the left caudal middle frontal and left lateral orbitofrontal areas sover the span of 2 years (median = 1-2%, 90%HDI [-0.01%: -0.001%], probability of direction (PD) = 90-99%). The MCI[TBI+] group also displayed greater longitudinal declines in Trail-Making-Test (TMT)-derived ratio (median: 0.737%, 90%HDI: [0.229%: 1.31%], PD = 98.8%) and differences scores (median: 20.6%, 90%HDI: [-5.17%: 43.2%], PD = 91.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the notion that patients with MCI and a history of TBI are at risk of accelerated neurodegeneration, displaying greatest evidence for cortical atrophy within the left middle frontal and lateral orbitofrontal frontal cortex. Importantly, these results suggest that long-term TBI-mediated atrophy is more pronounced in areas vulnerable to TBI-related mechanical injury, highlighting their potential relevance for diagnostic forms of intervention in TBI.

Correction: Valcic et al. Determining Whether Sex and Zygosity Modulates the Association between APOE4 and Psychosis in a Neuropathologically-Confirmed Alzheimer's Disease Cohort. Brain Sci. 2022, 12, 1266.

In the original publication [...].

Determining Whether Sex and Zygosity Modulates the Association between APOE4 and Psychosis in a Neuropathologically-Confirmed Alzheimer's Disease Cohort.

BACKGROUND: The APOE4 allele is a genetic risk factor for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous work by our group revealed that female APOE4 homozygotes with Lewy body (LB) pathology were more likely to experience psychosis compared to female APOE4 non-carriers, whereas in males there was no APOE4 dose-dependent significant effect. The objective of this study was to refine our previous findings by adjusting for covariates and determining the probability of an APOE4 sex-mediated effect on psychosis. METHODS: Neuropathologically confirmed AD patients with LB pathology (n = 491) and without LB pathology (n = 716) were extracted from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC). Patients were classified as psychotic if they scored positively for delusions and/or hallucinations on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Analysis consisted of a preliminary unadjusted binary logistic regression and a Generalized Additive binary logistic regression Model (GAM) to predict the relationship between APOE4 status and sex on the presence of psychosis in both cohorts, adjusting for age, education and MMSE. RESULTS: In the cohort with LB pathology, female APOE4 homozygotes were significantly more likely to experience psychosis compared to female APOE4 non-carriers (OR = 4.15, 95%CI [1.21, 14.2], p = 0.023). Female heterozygotes were also more likely to experience psychosis compared to female APOE4 non-carriers, but to a lesser extent (OR = 2.37, 95%CI [1.01, 5.59], p = 0.048). There was no significant difference in males with LB pathology or in any sex in the cohort without LB pathology. CONCLUSIONS: Sex and zygosity influence the effect of APOE4 on psychosis in neuropathologically confirmed AD patients, with the effect being limited to females with LB pathology.

Delusional Severity Is Associated with Abnormal Texture in FLAIR MRI.

Background: This study examines the relationship between delusional severity in cognitively impaired adults with automatically computed volume and texture biomarkers from the Normal Appearing Brain Matter (NABM) in FLAIR MRI. Methods: Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 24) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD, n = 18) with delusions of varying severities based on Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire (NPI-Q) (1­mild, 2­moderate, 3­severe) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) were analyzed for this task. The NABM region, which is gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) combined, was automatically segmented in FLAIR MRI volumes with intensity standardization and thresholding. Three imaging biomarkers were computed from this region, including NABM volume and two texture markers called "Integrity" and "Damage". Together, these imaging biomarkers quantify structural changes in brain volume, microstructural integrity and tissue damage. Multivariable regression was used to investigate relationships between imaging biomarkers and delusional severities (1, 2 and 3). Sex, age, education, APOE4 and baseline cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau were included as co-variates. Results: Biomarkers were extracted from a total of 42 participants with longitudinal time points representing 164 imaging volumes. Significant associations were found for all three NABM biomarkers between delusion level 3 and level 1. Integrity was also sensitive enough to show differences between delusion level 1 and delusion level 2. A significant specified interaction was noted with severe delusions (level 3) and CSF tau for all imaging biomarkers (p < 0.01). APOE4 homozygotes were also significantly related to the biomarkers. Conclusion: Cognitively impaired older adults with more severe delusions have greater global brain disease burden in the WM and GM combined (NABM) as measured using FLAIR MRI. Relative to patients with mild delusions, tissue degeneration in the NABM was more pronounced in subjects with higher delusional symptoms, with a significant association with CSF tau. Future studies are required to establish potential tau-associated mechanisms of increased delusional severity.