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Mild to moderate Alzheimer dementia with insufficient neuropathological changes
Serrano-Pozo A, Qian J, Monsell SE, Blacker D, Gómez-Isla T, Betensky RA, Growdon JH, Johnson KA et al.. Annals of neurology, 2014-04-08
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Recently, ~16% of participants in an anti-Aβ passive immunotherapy trial for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer disease (AD) had a negative baseline amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Whether they have AD or are AD clinical phenocopies remains unknown. We examined the 2005-2013 National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center autopsy database and found that ~14% of autopsied subjects clinically diagnosed with mild-to-moderate probable AD have no or sparse neuritic plaques, which would expectedly yield a negative amyloid PET scan. More than half of these "Aβ-negative" subjects have low neurofibrillary tangle Braak stages. These findings support the implementation of a positive amyloid biomarker as an inclusion criterion in future anti-Aβ drug trials.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
APA 7th
Serrano-Pozo, A., Qian, J., Monsell, S. E., Blacker, D., Gómez-Isla, T., Betensky, R. A., et al. (2014). Mild to moderate Alzheimer dementia with insufficient neuropathological changes. Annals of neurology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.24125
Vancouver
Serrano-Pozo A, Qian J, Monsell SE, Blacker D, Gómez-Isla T, Betensky RA, et al. Mild to moderate Alzheimer dementia with insufficient neuropathological changes. Annals of neurology. 2014. doi:10.1002/ana.24125. PMID: 24585367.
BibTeX
@article{serranopozo2014-24585367,
author = {Serrano-Pozo, A. and Qian, J. and Monsell, S. E. and Blacker, D. and Gómez-Isla, T. and Betensky, R. A. and Growdon, J. H. and Johnson, K. A. and others},
title = {{Mild to moderate Alzheimer dementia with insufficient neuropathological changes}},
journal = {Annals of neurology},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.1002/ana.24125},
pmid = {24585367},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.24125}
}
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Key findings
- These findings support the implementation of a positive amyloid biomarker as an inclusion criterion in future anti-Aβ drug trials.
Why it matters
In an autopsy database, about 14% of people clinically diagnosed with mild-to-moderate probable Alzheimer's disease had no or sparse neuritic plaques, which would likely mean a negative amyloid PET scan. The authors conclude that a positive amyloid biomarker should be required for future anti-amyloid drug trials, so this is about trial design rather than a treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 51/100
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.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Annals of neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Annals of Neurology: journal h-index 437 (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 | 2014 — within 20 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 | 5 / 7 | Cited 121 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 3 / 5 | 8.6 citations a year over 14 year(s) since 2014 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 7.4× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 3 / 6 | Cited by 23 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 28 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 4 / 4 | Last-listed author Bradley T. Hyman: h-index 190 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 3 / 3 | University of Washington: institution h-index 3,540 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 7 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 24585367) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 51 / 100 | — |
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