Citations

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe Movement Disorder Society clinical criteria for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) provide a framework for assessing the presence/severity of clinical symptoms and define a speech/language variant of PSP.ObjectivesTo evaluate the clinical criteria in a cohort of speech/language patients with longitudinal follow‐up.MethodsA total of 52 patients presenting with progressive apraxia of speech and/or agrammatic aphasia were followed longitudinally for up to 6 visits with clinical assessments and magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed oculomotor, postural instability, and akinesia diagnostic levels and determined whether patients met criteria for possible PSP‐speech/language or probable PSP at each visit. Kaplan‐Meier curves assessed time‐to‐event probabilities according to age. Statistical parametric mapping and midbrain volume were assessed according to disease progression.ResultsFew PSP symptoms were observed early in the disease, with oculomotor abnormalities and falls first observed 2 years after onset. Falls were more common than vertical supranuclear gaze palsy. Bradykinesia and rigidity commonly developed but axial was rarely greater than appendicular rigidity. During follow‐up, 54% met criteria for possible PSP‐speech/language, 38% for probable PSP‐Richardson's syndrome, and 38% for probable PSP‐parkinsonism, most commonly 6 to 6.9 years after onset. The probability of developing PSP was greater when onset was at an age older than 70 years. Patients who progressed to probable PSP had more parkinsonism and oculomotor impairment at baseline and greater midbrain atrophy when compared with those who did not develop probable PSP.ConclusionsSymptoms typical of PSP commonly develop in patients presenting with a progressive speech/language disorder. Older age appears to be an important prognostic factor in these patients.

Abstract Although white matter hyperintensities have traditionally been viewed as a marker of vascular disease, recent pathology studies have found an association between white matter hyperintensities and Alzheimer’s disease pathologies. The objectives of this study were to investigate the topographic patterns of white matter hyperintensities associated with Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers measured using PET. From the population-based Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, 434 participants without dementia (55% male) with FLAIR and gradient recall echo MRI, tau-PET (AV-1451) and amyloid-PET scans were identified. A subset had cerebral microbleeds detected on T2* gradient recall echo scans. White matter hyperintensities were semi-automatically segmented using FLAIR MRI in participant space and normalized to a custom template. We used statistical parametric mapping 12-based, voxel-wise, multiple-regression analyses to detect white matter hyperintense regions associated with Alzheimer’s biomarkers (global amyloid from amyloid-PET and meta-regions of interest tau uptake from tau-PET) after adjusting for age, sex and hypertension. For amyloid associations, we additionally adjusted for tau and vice versa. Topographic patterns of amyloid-associated white matter hyperintensities included periventricular white matter hyperintensities (frontal and parietal lobes). White matter hyperintense volumes in the detected topographic pattern correlated strongly with lobar cerebral microbleeds (P < 0.001, age and sex adjusted Cohen’s d = 0.703). In contrast, there were no white matter hyperintense regions significantly associated with increased tau burden using voxel-based analysis or region-specific analysis. Among non-demented elderly, amyloid load correlated with a topographic pattern of white matter hyperintensities. Further, the amyloid-associated, white matter hyperintense regions strongly correlated with lobar cerebral microbleeds suggesting that cerebral amyloid angiopathy contributes to the relationship between amyloid and white matter hyperintensities. The study did not support an association between increased tau burden and white matter hyperintense burden.

Abstract Agrammatic aphasia affects grammatical language production and can result from a neurodegenerative disease. Although it typically presents with concomitant apraxia of speech, this is not always the case. Little is known about the clinical course and imaging features of patients that present with agrammatism in the absence of apraxia of speech, which we will refer to as progressive agrammatic aphasia. We aimed to make a detailed description of the longitudinal clinical, linguistic, and neuroimaging features of a cohort of 11 patients with progressive agrammatic aphasia to provide a complete picture of this syndrome. All patients underwent detailed speech and language, neurological and neuropsychological assessments, 3 T structural and diffusion tensor imaging MRI, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and Pittsburgh compound B PET. The 11 patients were matched by age and gender to 22 patients who had mixed apraxia of speech and agrammatism. The progressive agrammatic aphasia patients performed abnormally on tests of language, general cognition, executive function, and functional ability at baseline and declined in these measures over time. Only two patients eventually developed apraxia of speech, while parkinsonism was absent-to-mild throughout all visits for all patients. When compared to the patients with mixed apraxia of speech and agrammatism, the patients with progressive agrammatic aphasia performed better on tests of motor speech and parkinsonism but more poorly, and declined faster over time, on tests of general aphasia severity, agrammatism, and naming. The patients with progressive agrammatic aphasia also showed different neuroimaging abnormalities, with greater atrophy, hypometabolism and white matter tract degeneration in the prefrontal and anterior temporal lobes compared to patients with mixed apraxia of speech and agrammatism. These differences were more pronounced as the disease progressed. These results demonstrate that progressive agrammatic aphasia has a different clinical disease course and different underlying neuroanatomical abnormalities than patients with the more common syndrome of mixed agrammatism and apraxia of speech. This supports the distinction of progressive agrammatic aphasia and has implications for the classification of patients with agrammatic aphasia.

AbstractIntroductionPrimary age‐related tauopathy (PART) is characterized by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles and absent‐minimal β‐amyloid deposition. Transactive response DNA‐binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP‐43), a third protein, has recently garnished a lot of attention in Alzheimer's disease where it is associated with memory loss and amygdala and hippocampal atrophy. We aimed to determine whether TDP‐43 is associated with brain atrophy in PART.MethodsWe assessed the frequency of TDP‐43 in PART and performed voxel‐level analysis in SPM12, as well as region‐of‐interest analysis using linear regression modeling, controlling for variables of interest, to assess for associations between TDP‐43 and brain atrophy.ResultsOf 116 PART cases, 31 (26.7%) had TDP‐43. The presence of TDP‐43 was associated with significantly greater amygdala, hippocampal, and anterior temporal atrophy in both the region‐of‐interest and the voxel level analyses.DiscussionTDP‐43 is associated with greater brain atrophy in PART.

Background: Plasma metabolites are associated with cognitive and physical function in the elderly. Because cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and neurodegeneration are common causes of cognitive and physical function decline, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the associations of six plasma metabolites (two plasma phosphatidylcholines [PCs]: PC aa C36:5 and PC aa 36:6 and four sphingomyelins [SMs]: SM C26:0, SM [OH] C22:1, SM [OH] C22:2, SM [OH] C24:1) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of cerebral SVD and neurodegeneration in older adults. Methods: This study included 238 older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study at the fifth exam. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the association of each metabolite (log-transformed) in separate models with MRI measures except lacunar infarcts, for which binary logistic regression was used. Results: Higher concentrations of plasma PC aa C36:5 had adverse associations with MRI features of cerebral SVD (odds ratio of 1.69 [95% confidence interval: 1.01, 2.83] with lacunar infarct, and beta of 0.16 log [cm3] [0.02, 0.30] with log [White Matter Hyperintensities (WMH) volume]) while higher concentrations of 3 plasma SM (OH)s were associated with higher total brain volume (beta of 12.0 cm3 [5.5, 18.6], 11.8 cm3 [5.0, 18.6], and 7.3 cm3 [1.2, 13.5] for SM [OH] C22:1, SM [OH] C22:2, and SM [OH] C24:1, respectively). Conclusions: This study identified associations between certain plasma metabolites and brain MRI measures of SVD and neurodegeneration in older adults, particularly higher SM (OH) concentrations with higher total brain volume.