title: Relationship between plasma homocysteine levels and brain atrophy in healthy elderly individuals.
abstract: The authors examined the association of total plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels with measures of atrophy and white matter disease on MRI scans in 36 healthy elderly individuals. Hcy had a significant positive relationship with lateral ventricle-brain ratios in the anterior (r = 0.49) and middle (r = 0.43) ventricular regions as measures of central atrophy, but not with cortical atrophy or white matter hyperintensities. In a logistic regression analysis, elevated Hcy was a significant determinant of increased anterior ventricle-brain ratio (> or =0.34) after controlling for age, folate, B12, creatinine, and white matter disease (OR = 2.3; CI, 1.03-5.09).
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia. p.sachdev@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Sachdev
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valenzuela
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: J C L
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Looi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brodaty
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D006710:Homocysteine