Role of vascular disease in development of Alzheimer's disease
Midlife vascular risk factors have been associated wit h late-life dementia. Whether these risk factors directly contribute to brain amyloid deposition is less well understood. Rebecca F. Gottesman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues examined data from 346 participants without dementia at study entry who have been evaluated for vascular risk factors and markers since 1987-1989 and with PET scans in 2011-2013 as part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC)-PET Amyloid Imaging Study. Positron emission tomography image analysis was completed in 2015. Vascular risk factors a t ARIC study entry (age 45-64 years; risk factors included body mass index 30 or greater, current smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and total cholesterol 200 mg/dL or greater) were evaluated in models that included age, sex, race, APOE genotype, and educational level. The availability of imaging biomarkers for brain amyloid allows the study of indiv...