A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS (VALCODIS COHORT)

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe Valencian Cognitive Diseases Study (VALCODIS) provides a large cohort of cases suffering from neurodegenerative diseases causing cognitive problems in their initial phases. This cohort is being obtained from admitted patients at Cognitive Disorders Unit Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe (Valencia, Spain), as a basis to contribute on the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis and prognosis research.MethodPatients who come to the Cognitive Disorders Unit at Neurology Department of Hospital La Fe can be recruited to the VALCODIS cohort after their informed consent have been obtained. Patients with moderate and severe dementia are not proposed to participate. Included patients were studied with standard analytical and neuroimaging procedures, commonly brain MR, and CSF biomarkers determination (β‐amyloid‐42, β‐amyloid‐40, p‐Tau, t‐Tau, neurofilament light chain). Patients on anticoagulation, other contraindications or not suitable for LP can be included if an amyloid brain PET can be obtained. In some patients, brain PET with FDG is also obtained. After amyloid status is assured, a detailed neuropsychological evaluation is obtained in every patient using at least MMSE, CDR, RBANS and GDS scales. Finally, blood samples were taken to determine some potential biomarkers (lipid peroxidation, lipids, proteins, microRNAs) and stored simultaneously with CSF samples.ResultA total of 1100 participants aged 50 to 80 years, who were on follow up from January 2017 to August 2022 have been included in the VALCODIS cohort. This cohort is composed by early AD patients (mild cognitive impairment (MCI), mild dementia), other dementias in their initial phases (frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia) and cognitively healthy persons. Also, some of MCI‐AD patients were followed‐up at 2 years to carry out a prognosis study, by means of neuropsychological evaluation and blood biomarkers.ConclusionThe VALCODIS cohort represents a valuable infrastructure describing 6‐year experience about early and specific AD diagnosis, and prognosis. This cohort will provide a large number of patients, biologically diagnosed by CSF biomarkers, as well as their demographical, clinical and biochemical data. In addition, the biological samples (blood, plasma, urine, saliva, CSF) were stored to carry out further biomarkers studies.