Flutemetamol-PET Aided Classification of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: A Multicenter Study.

OBJECTIVES

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)-related features on neuroimaging often coexist with signs of arteriolosclerosis-small vessel disease on neuroimaging in people with intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). This study aimed at defining the value of amyloid pathology detected by flutemetamol PET in reclassification and stratification of risk of bleeding in people with mixed CAA-arteriolosclerosis features.

METHODS

We included consecutive patients admitted to 2 institutions (2018-2023) with spontaneous symptomatic ICH, subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), transient focal neurologic episodes (TFNE), or cognitive impairment and MRI showing CAA hallmarks. All patients underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with susceptibility weighted imaging and flutemetamol PET imaging and were followed up for at least 1 year. We compared cases with CAA and arteriolosclerosis + CAA features and defined long-term outcomes (composite outcome including death, ICH, ischemic stroke, SAH, TFNE) depending on PET status (CAA/amyloid pathology vs arteriolosclerosis-predominant groups).

RESULTS

Among 47 patients, according to PET and MRI imaging, 38 patients were reclassified in the CAA/amyloid pathology group and 9 in the arteriolosclerosis-predominant group, with similar cardiovascular risk factors but a significantly higher lobar microbleed burden for the former group. The CAA/amyloid pathology group had higher rates of composite outcome (43.9 vs 11.1 events per 100 patient-year; = 0.039) and ICH (36.5 vs 5.6 events per 100 patient-years; = 0.04) compared with the arteriolosclerosis-predominant group.

DISCUSSION

Flutemetamol PET imaging can help in reclassification of mixed arteriolosclerosis + CAA into CAA/amyloid pathology and arteriolosclerosis-predominant, with implications on long-term risk of recurrent events.

CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE

This study provides Class IV evidence that flutemetamol PET can distinguish between CAA + arteriolosclerosis and arteriolosclerosis-predominant pathology.