Association between white matter lesions and cerebral Aβ burden

• Published in: PloS one 2018-09, Vol.13 (9), p.e0204313-e0204313
• Main Authors: Yi, Hyon-Ah, Won, Kyoung Sook, Chang, Hyuk Won, Kim, Hae Won
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimers disease; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood-brain barrier; Brain; Caregivers; Cognitive ability; Consent; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Fluorine isotopes; Impairment; Ischemia; Lesions; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Memory; Neurodegeneration; Neuroimaging; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Nuclear medicine; Older people; Pathology; Patients; Positron emission; Positron emission tomography; Proteins; Radioisotopes; Regression analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Substantia alba; Tomography
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204313

White matter lesions (WMLs), detected as hyperintensities on T2-weighted MRI, represent small vessel disease in the brain and are considered a potential risk factor for memory and cognitive impairment in older adults. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between WMLs and cerebral amyloid-β (Aβ) burden in patients with cognitive impairment. A total of 83 patients with cognitive impairment, who underwent brain MRI and F-18 florbetaben PET, were included prospectively: 19 patients were cognitively unimpaired, 30 exhibited mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 34 exhibited dementia. The Fazekas scale was used to quantify WMLs on T2-weighted brain MR images. Cerebral Aβ burden was quantitatively estimated using volume-of-interest analysis. Differences in cerebral Aβ burden were evaluated between low-WML (Fazekas scale ≤1) and high-WML (Fazekas scale ≥2) groups. The relationship between the Fazekas rating and cerebral Aβ burden was evaluated using linear regression analysis after adjusting for age and sex. In the overall cohort, the high-WML group exhibited significantly higher Aβ burden compared with the low-WML group (P = 0.011) and cerebral Aβ burden was positively correlated with Fazekas rating (β = 0.299, P = 0.006). In patients with MCI, the high-WML group exhibited significantly higher Aβ burden compared with the low-WML group (P = 0.019) and cerebral Aβ burden was positively correlated with Fazekas rating (β = 0.517, P = 0.003). The presence of WMLs was associated with cerebral Aβ burden in patients with MCI. Our findings suggest that small vessel disease in the brain is related to Alzheimer's disease pathology.