A comparative study of Amyloid positive and negative individuals with “Alzheimer Syndrome”

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundOutside academic centres, the diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s Disease remains a clinical diagnosis supported by basic blood work and structural brain imaging. It has already been documented, approximately 1/3rd of individuals meeting clinical criteria for probable AD, do not show underlying amyloidopathy on PET or cerebrospinal fluid. Thus, the clinical “Alzheimer Syndrome” encompasses individuals with abnormal amyloid (Amyloid positive: A+), as well as “amyloid negative” individuals lacking amyloidopathy. Finding ways to distinguish these subgroups clinically will become increasingly important as anti‐amyloid therapies become more available. It is not yet clear if these two groups have any clinical or imaging features that might distinguish them. Our objective was to find out if there are any clinical or imaging pointers towards amyloid biomarker status.MethodsA retrospective chart review of 23 patients screened for anti‐amyloid clinical trials was performed, of whom 13 were (A+) and 10 were (A‐). The following information was collected from the chart review‐ demography, medical history, clinical presentation, course of disease and rate of progression, neuropsychological test scores, blood work, brain scans, and any other relevant investigations. Relevant data were subjected to appropriate statistical analysis.ResultsThis is an ongoing study and the results are derived from interim analysis. Comparison of the (A+) and (A‐) groups revealed no statistically significant difference in terms of age, sex, amnestic presentation and cognitive decline rate. We did not find evidence (in this small group) that (A‐) subjects had a greater vascular load ‐ no difference in Hachinski score or Fazekas score. The only statistically significant difference between the groups was found in their NPI scores, with the A+ group showing a higher score (2.92 versus 0.80, p = 0.008).ConclusionAmyloid positive individuals are more likely to have neuropsychiatric manifestations during the course of their cognitive decline than their Amyloid negative counterpart. Work is ongoing to delineate biological and biomarker differences that account for the cortical dementia (Alzheimer Syndrome) in Amyloid negative subjects. Delineating differences in clinical presentation may prove useful in specifying which of these individuals are actually Amyloid positive. Confirmation in a larger group of subjects will be necessary.