Kidney Function Is Not Related to Brain Amyloid Burden on PET Imaging in The 90+ Study Cohort

Wei Ling Lau; Mark Fisher; Evan Fletcher; Charles DeCarli; Hayden Troutt; María M Corrada; Claudia Kawas; Annlia Paganini-Hill

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.671945

Kidney Function Is Not Related to Brain Amyloid Burden on PET Imaging in The 90+ Study Cohort

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Sep 20:8:671945. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.671945. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Wei Ling Lau¹, Mark Fisher^{2

3

4}, Evan Fletcher⁵, Charles DeCarli⁵, Hayden Troutt¹, María M Corrada^{2

6

7}, Claudia Kawas^{2

6

8}, Annlia Paganini-Hill²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Orange, CA, United States.
² Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States.
³ Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States.
⁴ Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
⁶ Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States.
⁸ Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States.

Abstract

Cognitive decline is common in chronic kidney disease (CKD). While the evidence of vascular cognitive impairment in this population is robust, the role of Alzheimer's pathology is unknown. We evaluated serum cystatin C-estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), brain amyloid-β positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, and cognitive function in 166 participants from The 90+ Study. Mean age was 93 years (range 90-107) and 101 (61%) were women; 107 participants had normal cognitive status while 59 participants had cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) or dementia. Mean ± standard deviation cystatin C was 1.59 ± 0.54 mg/L with eGFR 40.7 ± 18.7 ml/min/1.73m². Higher amyloid-β burden was associated with dementia, but not with age, diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease. We found no association between brain amyloid-β burden and cystatin C eGFR. We previously reported that kidney function was associated with cognition and cerebral microbleeds in the same cohort of oldest-old adults (90+ years old). Collectively, these findings suggest that microvascular rather than Alzheimer's pathology drives CKD-associated cognitive dysfunction in this population.

Keywords: aging; amyloid PET; chronic kidney disease; cognitive decline and dementia; cystatin C.

Abstract

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