Application of an amyloid and tau classification system in subcortical vascular cognitive impairment patients

Abstract

Objective: To apply an AT (Aβ/tau) classification system to subcortical vascular cognitive impairment (SVCI) patients following recently developed biomarker-based criteria of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to investigate its clinical significance.

Methods: We recruited 60 SVCI patients who underwent the neuropsychological tests, brain MRI, and 18F-florbetaben and 18F-AV1451 PET at baseline. As a control group, we further recruited 27 patients with AD cognitive impairment (ADCI; eight Aβ PET-positive AD dementia and 19 amnestic mild cognitive impairment). ADCI and SVCI patients were classified as having normal or abnormal Aβ (A-/A+) and tau (T-/T+) based on PET results. Across the three SVCI groups (A-, A+T-, and A+T+SVCI), we compared longitudinal changes in cognition, hippocampal volume (HV), and cortical thickness using linear mixed models.

Results: Among SVCI patients, 33 (55%), 20 (33.3%), and seven (11.7%) patients were A-, A+T-, and A+T+, respectively. The frequency of T+ was lower in A+SVCI (7/27, 25.9%) than in A+ADCI (14/20, 70.0%, p = 0.003) which suggested that cerebral small vessel disease affected cognitive impairments independently of A+. A+T-SVCI had steeper cognitive decline than A-SVCI. A+T+SVCI also showed steeper cognitive decline than A+T-SVCI. Also, A+T-SVCI had steeper decrease in HV than A-SVCI, while cortical thinning did not differ between the two groups. A+T+SVCI had greater global cortical thinning compared with A+T-SVCI, while declines in HV did not differ between the two groups.

Conclusion: This study showed that the AT system successfully characterized SVCI patients, suggesting that the AT system may be usefully applied in a research framework for clinically diagnosed SVCI.