Time Course of Glucose Metabolism in Relation to Cognitive Performance and Postmortem Neuropathology in Met146Val PSEN1 Mutation Carriers

• Studies in carriers of mutations that cause early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease (eoFAD) are of significant interest. We showed previously that regional glucose hypometabolism could be detected many years before disease onset in presenilin 1 (PSEN1) mutation carriers. Here we studied four members of a family with a Met146Val PSEN1 mutation, two symptomatic carriers and two non-carriers, longitudinally with (18)F-FDG PET over a period of about two and four years, respectively. The two mutation carriers showed global cortical glucose hypometabolism over time with the most distinct decline occurring in the posterior cingulate, the parietal and parietotemporal cortex, which was also observed when compared with a group of 23 healthy controls and a group of 27 sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD) patients. This decline correlated with cognitive deterioration over time as measured by neuropsychological tests. Postmortem examination of brain tissue revealed substantially elevated levels of AD type neuropathology in terms of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the two mutation carriers compared with a reference group of 249 sAD patients. In the mutation carriers, the amount of neuritic plaques but not neurofibrillary tangles correlated hereby significantly with regional glucose metabolism as measured by (18)F-FDG on the last scanning occasions, which were performed four and approximately five years before death, respectively. We here show that FDG PET can depict in vivo the aggressive disease progression in eoFAD mutation carriers in relationship to neuropathology.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Neurologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Neurology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease

FDG

longitudinal studies

neuritic plaques

neurofibrillary tangles

postitron emission = mography

postmortem pathology

presenilin 1

position

progression

pathology

Psychology

Psykologi

Psychology

psykologi

MEDICINE

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)