Dement Neurocogn Disord.  2019 Mar;18(1):19-29. 10.12779/dnd.2019.18.1.19.

Prediction of Alzheimer's Pathological Changes in Subjective Cognitive Decline Using the Self-report Questionnaire and Neuroimaging Biomarkers

• Hong YJ
• Park KW
• Kang DY
• Lee JH

• KMID: 2444264
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2019.18.1.19

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be the first symptomatic stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Hence, a screening tool to characterize the patients' complaints and assess the risk of AD is required. We investigated the SCD neuroimaging biomarker distributions and the relevance between the self-report questionnaire and Alzheimer's pathologic changes.
METHODS
Individuals aged 50 and above with consistent cognitive complaints without any objective cognitive impairments were eligible for the study. The newly developed questionnaire consisted of 2 parts; 10 questions translated from the "˜SCD-plus criteria' and a Korean version of the cognitive failure questionnaire by Broadbent. All the subjects underwent physical examinations such as blood work, detailed neuropsychological tests, the self-report questionnaire, brain magnetic resonance imagings, and florbetaben positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Amyloid PET findings were interpreted using both visual rating and quantitative analysis. Group comparisons and association analysis were performed using SPSS (version 18.0).
RESULTS
A total of 31 participants with SCD completed the study and 25.8% showed positive amyloid depositions. The degree of periventricular white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and hippocampal atrophy were more severe in amyloid-positive SCDs compared to the amyloid-negative group. In the self-reported questionnaire, the "˜informant's report a decline' and "˜symptom's onset after 65 years of age' were associated with more Alzheimer's pathologic changes.
CONCLUSIONS
Amyloid-positive SCDs differed from amyloid-negative SCDs on WMH, hippocampal atrophy, and a few self-reported clinical features, which gave clues on the prediction of AD pathology.

Keyword

Subjective Cognitive Decline; Alzheimer's Disease; Neuroimaging Biomarker; Cognitive Complaint; Self-reported Questionnaire; Amyloid PET

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease
Amyloid
Atrophy
Biomarkers*
Brain
Cognition Disorders
Mass Screening
Neuroimaging*
Neuropsychological Tests
Pathology
Physical Examination
Plaque, Amyloid
Positron-Emission Tomography
White Matter
Amyloid
Biomarkers

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Flowchart of the participants. SCD: subjective cognitive decline, MRI: magnetic resonance imaging, PET: positron emission tomography, N: neurodegeneration; 3D: 3-demensional.

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  Fig. 2 Preclinical AD grades. AD: Alzheimer's disease, SNAP: suspected non-AD pathophysiology.

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  Fig. 3 Preclinical AD grades based on self-report questionnaire (A) Informant's report about the decline (B) Worse than others of the same age group (C) Symptom's onset age over 65 years old. ‘1’ indicates ‘yes’ and ‘0’ indicates ‘no’ for the question. AD: Alzheimer's disease, SNAP: suspected non-AD pathophysiology.

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