title: Basal forebrain atrophy and cortical amyloid deposition in nondemented elderly subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Both neurodegeneration of the cholinergic basal forebrain (BF) and deposition of β-amyloid are early events in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Associations between increased amyloid pathology and cholinergic atrophy have been described in autopsy studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used structural MRI and AV45-PET amyloid imaging data of 225 cognitively normal or mildly impaired elderly subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative to assess in vivo associations between BF atrophy and cortical amyloid deposition. Associations were examined using region-of-interest (ROI) and voxel-based approaches with reference to cytoarchitectonic mappings of the cholinergic BF nuclei.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ROI- and voxel-based approaches yielded complementary evidence for an association between BF volume and cortical amyloid deposition in presymptomatic and predementia stages of AD, irrespective of age, gender, and APOE genotype.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observed correlations between BF atrophy and cortical amyloid load likely reflect associations between cholinergic degeneration and amyloid pathology as reported in neuropathologic examination studies.
authors.affiliation: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: michel@grothe.org.
authors.forename: Michel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Grothe
authors.affiliation: Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ewers
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Morphological Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Würtzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heinsen
authors.affiliation: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Rostock, Germany; Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Teipel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000682:Amyloid / Q000378:metabolism*; D001284:Atrophy; D066187:Basal Forebrain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid
keywords: AV45-PET; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid; Cholinergic basal forebrain; Cytoarchitectonic; MRI; Mild cognitive impairment; Nucleus basalis Meynert; Preclinical; Predementia; Substantia innominata; Voxel-based