HHS Public Access Author manuscript Author Manuscript Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 October 01. Published in final edited form as: Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2015 ; 29(4): 350–352. doi:10.1097/WAD.0000000000000092. Does Alzheimer’s disease pathologic change underlie subjective cognitive complaints? Joshua D. Grill, Ph.D. 1,* , Harry V. Vinters, M.D. 1,2 , and Sarah E. Monsell, M.S. 3 1 Mary Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Department of Neurology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA Author Manuscript 2 Pathology 3 National and Laboratory Medicine (Neuropathology), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Keywords Alzheimer’s disease; subjective complaint; memory; neuropathology Introduction Author Manuscript Subjective memory complaints may serve as a harbinger of future cognitive impairment in persons who perform within the range of normal on objective testing of memory and other cognitive domains. The subsequent decline may ultimately meet diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and risk of such progression may be increased among carriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 allele 1 and those with biomarker evidence supporting the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). 2 Author Manuscript Cross-sectional studies suggest that persons with subjective complaints may be at increased risk to demonstrate abnormal AD biomarkers. 3 Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between subjective complaints and AD neuropathologic change. Neuropathology studies suggest that amyloid plaques, 1, 4 neurofibrillary tangles, 4 and fulfillment of diagnostic criteria for AD 5 are more frequent at autopsy among those with subjective complaints, compared to those lacking complaints. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that, among participants in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set (NACC UDS), subjective memory complaints would be associated with AD pathologic change at autopsy. To test this hypothesis, we implemented criteria approximating the recent National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) criteria for pathological diagnosis for AD. 6 Methods We used data from the NACC UDS, a repository for longitudinal data collected from approximately 30 current or previously NIA-funded AD Centers nationwide that emphasize Corresponding author: Joshua D. Grill, PhD, UCLA Easton Alzheimer’s Center, 10911 Weyburn Ave, Suite 200. Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Tel.: (310) 794-2511; fax: (310) 794-3148. jgrill@mednet.ucla.edu.