Factors associated with survival probability in autopsy-proven frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the clinical and pathological factors associated with survival in autopsy-confirmed frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).


METHODS
The final analysis cohort included 71 patients with pathologically proven FTLD, excluding patients with clinical motor neuron disease (MND), evaluated at the University of Pennsylvania or at the University of California, San Francisco. We assessed clinical and demographic features; cognitive functioning at presentation; genetic markers of disease; and graded anatomical distribution of tau, ubiquitin and amyloid pathology.


RESULTS
The tau-negative group (n = 35) had a median survival time of 96 months (95% CI: 72-114 months), whereas the tau-positive group (n = 36) had a median survival time of 72 months (95% CI: 60-84 months). Patients with tau-positive pathology across all brain regions had shorter survival than those with tau-negative pathology in univariate Cox regression analyses (Hazard ratio of dying = 2.003, 95% CI = 1.209-3.318, p = 0.007).


CONCLUSIONS
Tau-positive pathology represents a significant risk to survival in FTLD, whereas tau-negative pathology is associated with a longer survival time when clinical MND is excluded.
Xie
S X
SX
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Forman
M S
MS
Farmer
J
J
Moore
P
P
Wang
Y
Y
Wang
X
X
Clark
C M
CM
Coslett
H B
HB
Chatterjee
A
A
Arnold
S E
SE
Rosen
H
H
Karlawish
J H T
JH
Van Deerlin
V M
VM
Lee
V M-Y
VM
Trojanowski
J Q
JQ
Grossman
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018450:Disease Progression; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D024801:Tauopathies / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology