A - 14 Sex Differences in the Associations between Age and Neuroanatomical Correlates of Alzheimer's Disease in Congolese Older Adults.

Abstract

Investigate sex differences in the relationships between age and brain regions typically affected in Alzheimer's disease (ad) in healthy aging Congolese adults. 76 individuals, including 40 male [age: M(SD) = 70.5(9.1)] and 36 female [age: M(SD) = 74.4(6.1)] were recruited from the Democratic Republic of Congo and underwent structural magnetic imaging on a 1.5T scanner. Freesurfer was utilized to segment 3D T1w images. Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationship between age and brain volumes in hippocampal and superior frontal regions of interest and total gray matter and overall brain volumes. Age had moderate, statistically significant negative correlations with left and right hippocampal (r = -0.50, -0.48), left and right superior frontal (r = -0.44, -0.41) total gray matter (r = -0.49) and overall brain (r = -0.48) volumes. When separated by sex, age continued to show moderate negative correlations with all regions in males. However, in females, associations only remained significant for both hippocampal (left: r = -0.37, right: r = -0.44) hippocampal, left superior frontal (r = -0.37), and total gray matter (r = -0.40) volumes. Healthy Congolese older adults demonstrate associations between age and known ad brain regions, and all associations remained significant for males, while only a few remained significant for females. Similar to Western cohorts, there are aging effects in Congolese older adults and associations between age-related brain volume loss seen in healthy male individuals. Gender stratification may be important in determining risk and progression of pre-clinical and clinical populations and understanding resilience to pathophysiological processes of ad in aging Congolese adults.