CL Ropp 1, SL Tyas 1, KP Riley 2, KS SantaCruz 3 1 University of Waterloo, 2 University of Kentucky, 3 University of Minnesota March 29, 2011 The Impact of Brain Infarcts on Dementia Varies by Apolipoprotein E and Educational Status
Brain Infarcts & Alzheimer’s Disease The clinical expression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may be influenced by the presence of brain infarcts Not all individuals with brain infarcts, however, experience dementia
Established Risk Factors for AD Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) status the ApoE-e4 allele Educational level Low educational attainment
Research Aim To examine if the influence of brain infarcts on AD and dementia varies by ApoE and educational status
Methods - Sample Data Source: The Nun Study 678 agreed to participate Annual cognitive and physical assessments Access to convent archives Brain donation after death At the time of this study, 484 participants had died and had pathologic assessment for AD and brain infarcts
Methods - Measures Outcomes: Dementia CERAD battery of neuropsychological tests and impaired activities of daily living AD Pathology CERAD (probable/definite) or NIA-RI (intermediate/high likelihood) criteria Alzheimer’s Disease Both dementia and AD pathology (CERAD/NIA-RI)
Methods - Measures Exposure: Brain infarcts Any large or lacunar infarcts visible to the naked eye at gross pathologic assessment Modifiers: ApoE and educational status
Methods - Analysis Descriptive Chi-square tests and t-tests Multivariate Logistic regression Predictor: brain infarcts Outcomes: dementia, AD (various definitions) Adjusted by age, ApoE status, and education Stratified by ApoE status or education
Table 1. Association of brain infarcts with dementia, AD, and AD pathology Brain infarcts Unadjusted OR95% CI Adjusted OR 1 95% CI Dementia (n=463) Bolded value indicate significance 1 Adjusted for ApoE, educational level, and age at death
Table 2. Association of brain infarcts with dementia, stratified by ApoE status Dementia Adjusted OR 1 95% CI ApoE-e2 (n=60) ApoE-e3 (n=286) ApoE-e4 (n=117) Bolded values indicate significance 1 Adjusted for educational level and age at death
Table 3. Association of brain infarcts with dementia, stratified by educational level Dementia Adjusted OR 1 95% CI <=High school (n=80) Bachelor’s (n=196) >=Master’s (n=187) Bolded values indicate significance 1 Adjusted for ApoE and age at last cognitive assessment
Conclusions Brain infarcts significantly increased the risk of dementia, particularly among low- risk ApoE and educational subgroups Brain infarcts were not significantly associated with AD pathology or combined AD pathology/dementia outcome
Conclusions Impact of infarcts seems to be driven by their association with clinical symptoms of dementia rather than AD pathology The greater predictive power of infarcts within low-risk subgroups raises questions about the interplay of neuropathology, risk factors and brain reserve
Acknowledgements School Sisters of Notre Dame religious congregation Funding for the Nun Study at the University of Kentucky: NIA 5R01AG09862, K04AG00553, P50AG05144; and the Kleberg Foundation Funding for this project at the University of Waterloo: Alzheimer’s Association grant NIRG University of Minnesota, home of the Nun Study