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Atrophy patterns in early clinical stages across distinct phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease
Ossenkoppele R, Cohn-Sheehy BI, La Joie R, Vogel JW, Möller C, Lehmann M, van Berckel BN, Seeley WW et al.. Human brain mapping, 2015-08-11
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Alzheimer's disease (AD) can present with distinct clinical variants. Identifying the earliest neurodegenerative changes associated with each variant has implications for early diagnosis, and for understanding the mechanisms that underlie regional vulnerability and disease progression in AD. We performed voxel-based morphometry to detect atrophy patterns in early clinical stages of four AD phenotypes: Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA, "visual variant," n=93), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA, "language variant," n=74), and memory-predominant AD categorized as early age-of-onset (EOAD, 65 years, n=114).
Key findings
- Identifying the earliest neurodegenerative changes associated with each variant has implications for early diagnosis, and for understanding the mechanisms that underlie regional vulnerability and disease progression in AD.
- We performed voxel-based morphometry to detect atrophy patterns in early clinical stages of four AD phenotypes: Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA, "visual variant," n=93), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA, "language variant," n=74), and memory-predominant AD categorized as early age-of-onset (EOAD, <65 years, n=114) and late age-of-onset (LOAD, >65 years, n=114).
- Patients with each syndrome were stratified based on: (1) degree of functional impairment, as measured by the clinical dementia rating (CDR) scale, and (2) overall extent of brain atrophy, as measured by a neuroimaging approach that sums the number of brain voxels showing significantly lower gray matter volume than cognitively normal controls (n=80).
- Even at the earliest clinical stage (CDR=0.5 or bottom quartile of overall atrophy), patients with each syndrome showed both common and variant-specific atrophy.
Why it matters
Using voxel-based morphometry, this study mapped brain atrophy patterns in early clinical stages of four Alzheimer's disease phenotypes, including posterior cortical atrophy and logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. It aims to aid early diagnosis and understanding of disease progression, not treatment, cure or prevention.
Study details
- Participants93
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 54/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Human brain mapping) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Human Brain Mapping: journal h-index 271 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2015 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 1 / 4 | 93 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 5 / 7 | Cited 248 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 3 / 5 | 19.1 citations a year over 13 year(s) since 2015 |
| Impact for its field and year | 4 / 6 | Cited 16.2× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 3 / 6 | Cited by 18 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 3 / 4 | Cited 51 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 4 / 4 | Last-listed author Gil D. Rabinovici: h-index 116 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | University College London: institution h-index 2,029 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 7 institution(s) in 3 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 26260856) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 54 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
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APA 7th
Ossenkoppele, R., Cohn-Sheehy, B. I., La Joie, R., Vogel, J. W., Möller, C., Lehmann, M., et al. (2015). Atrophy patterns in early clinical stages across distinct phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease. Human brain mapping. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22927
Vancouver
Ossenkoppele R, Cohn-Sheehy BI, La Joie R, Vogel JW, Möller C, Lehmann M, et al. Atrophy patterns in early clinical stages across distinct phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease. Human brain mapping. 2015. doi:10.1002/hbm.22927. PMID: 26260856.
BibTeX
@article{ossenkoppele2015-26260856,
author = {Ossenkoppele, R. and Cohn-Sheehy, B. I. and La Joie, R. and Vogel, J. W. and Möller, C. and Lehmann, M. and van Berckel, B. N. and Seeley, W. W. and others},
title = {{Atrophy patterns in early clinical stages across distinct phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease}},
journal = {Human brain mapping},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1002/hbm.22927},
pmid = {26260856},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22927}
}
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