Home › Research › Brain scans and imaging
Entorhinal cortex tau, amyloid-β, cortical thickness and memory performance in non-demented subjects
David S. Knopman, Emily S. Lundt, Terry M. Therneau, Prashanthi Vemuri, Val J. Lowe, Kejal Kantarci, Jeffrey L. Gunter, Matthew L. Senjem et al.. Brain, 2019-01-20
Topic: Plasma and spinal-fluid biomarkers
As more biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and age-related brain conditions become available, more sophisticated analytic approaches are needed to take full advantage of the information they convey. Most work has been done using categorical approaches but the joint relationships of tau PET, amyloid PET and cortical thickness in their continuous distributions to cognition have been under-explored. We evaluated non-demented subjects over age 50 years in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, 2037 of whom had undergone 3 T MRI scan, 985 amyloid PET scan with 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) and MRI, and 577 PIB-PET, 18F-AV1451 flortaucipir PET and MRI. Participants received a nine-test cognitive battery. Three test scores (logical memory delayed recall, visual reproduction delayed recall and auditory verbal learning test delayed recall) were used to generate a memory composite z-score. We used Gradient Boosting Machine models to analyse the relationship between regional cortical thickness, flortaucipir PET signal, PIB-PET signal and memory z-scores. Age, education, sex and number of test exposures were included in the model as covariates. In this population-based study of non-demented subjects, most of the associations between biomarkers and memory z-scores accrued after 70 years of age. Entorhinal cortex exhibited the strongest associations between biomarkers and memory z-scores. Other temporal regions showed similar but attenuated associations, and non-temporal regions had negligible associations between memory z-scores and biomarkers. Entorhinal flortaucipir PET signal, PIB-PET signal and entorhinal cortical thickness were independently and additively associated with declining memory z-scores. In contrast to global PIB-PET signal where only very high amyloid-β levels were associated low memory z-scores, entorhinal flortaucipir PET signal just above background levels was associated with low memory z-scores. The lowest memory z-scores occurred with the confluence of elevated entorhinal flortaucipir PET signal and lower entorhinal cortical thickness.
Key findings
- Entorhinal flortaucipir PET signal, PIB-PET signal and entorhinal cortical thickness were independently and additively associated with declining memory z-scores.
- In contrast to global PIB-PET signal where only very high amyloid-β levels were associated low memory z-scores, entorhinal flortaucipir PET signal just above background levels was associated with low memory z-scores.
New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Brain scans & tests →
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 45/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 26 of the 58 points we could judge it on, which is 45 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Brain) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| 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 | 2 / 5 | 2019 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 30759182) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 26 / 58 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 26 of the 58 points we could judge it on is 45 out of 100. |
| Total | 45 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Free copy unknown: no free-copy check has an answer for this record yet. That does not mean it is paywalled.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Knopman, D. S., Lundt, E. S., Therneau, T. M., Vemuri, P., Lowe, V. J., Kantarci, K., et al. (2019). Entorhinal cortex tau, amyloid-β, cortical thickness and memory performance in non-demented subjects. Brain. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awz025
Vancouver
Knopman DS, Lundt ES, Therneau TM, Vemuri P, Lowe VJ, Kantarci K, et al. Entorhinal cortex tau, amyloid-β, cortical thickness and memory performance in non-demented subjects. Brain. 2019. doi:10.1093/brain/awz025. PMID: 30759182.
BibTeX
@article{knopman2019-30759182,
author = {Knopman, David S. and Lundt, Emily S. and Therneau, Terry M. and Vemuri, Prashanthi and Lowe, Val J. and Kantarci, Kejal and Gunter, Jeffrey L. and Senjem, Matthew L. and others},
title = {{Entorhinal cortex tau, amyloid-β, cortical thickness and memory performance in non-demented subjects}},
journal = {Brain},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1093/brain/awz025},
pmid = {30759182},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awz025}
}
Related studies in Brain scans and imaging
Also tagged “18f”
319 studies in the library carry the topic tag “18f”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 319 tagged studies.