Markers of amyloid-β deposition and burden of enlarged perivascular spaces in patients with cognitive impairment and small vessel disease

Ana Sofia Costa; Lieza G Exalto; Wiesje M van der Flier; Charlotte E Teunissen; Frederik Barkhof; Hugo J Kuijf; Geert Jan Biessels; TRACE-VCI Study Group

doi:10.1177/13872877241296012

Markers of amyloid-β deposition and burden of enlarged perivascular spaces in patients with cognitive impairment and small vessel disease

J Alzheimers Dis. 2024 Nov 11:13872877241296012. doi: 10.1177/13872877241296012. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ana Sofia Costa^{1

2}, Lieza G Exalto³, Wiesje M van der Flier⁴, Charlotte E Teunissen⁵, Frederik Barkhof^{6

7}, Hugo J Kuijf⁸, Geert Jan Biessels³; TRACE-VCI Study Group

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
² JARA Institute Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging (INM-11), Research Center Juelich and RWTH Aachen, Aachen and Juelich, Germany.
³ Department of Neurology, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Alzheimer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Neurochemistry Laboratory, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁷ Queen Square Institute of Neurology & Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

PMID: 39529285
DOI: 10.1177/13872877241296012

Abstract

MRI-visible enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS) are common in patients with cognitive impairment and possibly linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). In a study of memory clinic patients (n = 450; mean age 66.5 ± 7.45, 45.8% female), we investigated CSF amyloid-β (Aβ)_1-42 (AD biomarker) and strictly lobar microbleeds (CAA marker) in relation to centrum semiovale EPVS (CSO-EPVS). Age-controlled analyses showed that severe CSO-EPVS associated with Aβ status (odds ratio [OR] = 1.51, 95%CI = 1.02-2.24), but not strictly lobar microbleeds (OR = 1.39, 95%CI = 0.92-2.11), with no significant Aβ status and microbleeds interaction. This implies that in this setting, severe CSO-EPVS is not a specific indicator of CAA.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; amyloid-β accumulation; cerebral amyloid angiopathy; memory clinic; perivascular spaces; small vessel disease; strictly lobar microbleeds.