Department of Surgical Sciences, Radiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences/Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
BMC Geriatr. 2017 Sep 8;17(1):208. doi: 10.1186/s12877-017-0601-6.
The Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain displays atrophy with amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau deposition, whereas decreased Aβ42 and increased tau are measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The aim of this study was to relate cognitive performance to the degree of brain atrophy, CSF biomarker levels and neuropathology in a cohort of aged men.
Fifty-eight 86-92-year-old men from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM) cohort underwent cognitive testing, brain computed tomography and lumbar puncture. Atrophy was graded with established scales. Concentrations of CSF Aβ42, t-tau and p-tau were measured by ELISA. Thirteen brains were examined post mortem.
Forty-six of the individuals were considered non-demented, whereas twelve were diagnosed with dementia, either at baseline (n = 4) or during follow-up (n = 8). When comparing subjects with and without dementia, there were no differences in the degree of atrophy, although the mini mental state examination (MMSE) scoring correlated weakly with the degree of medial temporal atrophy (MTA) (p = 0.04). Moreover, the CSF biomarker levels did not differ significantly between healthy (n = 27) and demented (n = 8) subjects (median values 715 vs 472 pg/ml for Aβ42, 414 vs 427 pg/ml for t-tau and 63 vs 60 pg/ml for p-tau). Similarly, there were no differences in the biomarker levels between individuals with mild (n = 24) and severe (n = 11) MTA (median values 643 vs 715 pg/ml for Aβ42, 441 vs 401 pg/ml for t-tau and 64 vs 53 pg/ml for p-tau). Finally, the neuropathological changes did not correlate with any of the other measures.
In this cohort of aged men only a weak correlation could be seen between cognitive performance and MTA, whereas the various neuroradiological, biochemical and neuropathological measures did not correlate with each other. Thus, AD biomarkers seem to be less informative in subjects of an advanced age.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）大脑表现出萎缩，伴有淀粉样蛋白-β（Aβ）和tau 沉积，而脑脊液（CSF）中则测量到 Aβ42 减少和 tau 增加。本研究的目的是在一个年龄较大的男性队列中，将认知表现与脑萎缩程度、CSF 生物标志物水平和神经病理学相关联。
58 名 86-92 岁的乌普萨拉男性纵向研究（ULSAM）队列成员接受了认知测试、脑计算机断层扫描和腰椎穿刺。采用已建立的量表对萎缩程度进行分级。通过 ELISA 测量 CSF Aβ42、t-tau 和 p-tau 的浓度。13 个大脑进行了尸检检查。
46 名个体被认为没有痴呆，而 12 名被诊断为痴呆，其中 4 名在基线时被诊断，8 名在随访期间被诊断。当比较有和没有痴呆的受试者时，萎缩程度没有差异，尽管简易精神状态检查（MMSE）评分与内侧颞叶萎缩（MTA）的程度弱相关（p=0.04）。此外，健康受试者（n=27）和痴呆受试者（n=8）之间的 CSF 生物标志物水平没有显著差异（中位数值分别为 Aβ42 的 715 与 472 pg/ml、t-tau 的 414 与 427 pg/ml 和 p-tau 的 63 与 60 pg/ml）。同样，MTA 轻度（n=24）和重度（n=11）个体之间的生物标志物水平也没有差异（中位数值分别为 Aβ42 的 643 与 715 pg/ml、t-tau 的 441 与 401 pg/ml 和 p-tau 的 64 与 53 pg/ml）。最后，神经病理学变化与其他任何测量值均无相关性。
在这个年龄较大的男性队列中，认知表现与 MTA 之间仅能看到微弱的相关性，而各种神经影像学、生物化学和神经病理学测量值之间彼此不相关。因此，AD 生物标志物在年龄较大的受试者中似乎信息量较少。
