title: The temporospatial evolution of neuritic plaque-related and independent tauopathies: implications for dementia staging.
abstract: Neuritic plaque (NP) formation can be dated in vivo. This analysis attempts to "date" the progression of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) using the spatial distribution of NP as a reference. Autopsy data from 471 participants in the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS) were combined into latent factor measures of NFT and NP counts. The variance in "early" and "late" NP pathology was used to estimate the spatial distribution of "early" and "late" NFT formation. A third latent factor representing "non-NP-related NFT" was also constructed. "Early" NP and "late" NP correlated significantly with objectively early and later cognitive performance, respectively. In contrast to our expectations, neocortical NFT correlated best with "early" NP pathology, while NFT in allocortical structures correlated best with "late" NP pathology. Therefore, the NP-related fraction of NFT appears to be co-localized spatially with NP. However, since the latter evolve corticofugally in time, this suggests that NP-related NFT do so as well. Corticotropic NFT formation must therefore be either unrelated to NP formation, a temporally distinct process, or both.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA Department of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA Department of Family & Community Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA South Texas Veterans' Health System Audie L. Murphy Division GRECC, San Antonio, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Donald R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Royall
authors.affiliation: Department of Family & Community Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Raymond F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Palmer
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian; D001344:Autopsy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D024801:Tauopathies / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; dementia; mild cognitive impairment; neuropathology