Cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease: the CERAD experience, Part XV.
We studied the frequency, severity, and clinical correlations of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in 117 CERAD subjects with autopsy-confirmed AD. Eighty-three percent showed at least a mild degree of amyloid angiopathy. Thirty of 117 brains (25.6%) showed moderate to severe CAA affecting the cerebral vessels in one or more cortical regions. These brains also showed a significantly higher frequency of hemorrhages or ischemic lesions than those of subjects with little or no amyloid angiopathy (43.3% versus 23.0%; odds ratio = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.1 to 6.2) High CAA scores also correlated with the presence of cerebral arteriosclerosis and with older age at onset of dementia. Our findings suggest that factors contributing to non-AD-related vascular pathology (e.g., atherosclerosis) may play a role in amyloid deposition in cerebral vessels in AD.
Ellis
R J
RJ
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (0948), University of California (San Diego), La Jolla 92093, USA.
Olichney
J M
JM
Thal
L J
LJ
Mirra
S S
SS
Morris
J C
JC
Beekly
D
D
Heyman
A
A
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D016657:Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology