Table 7.
Cross-sectional autopsy studies examining stroke risk factors and Alzheimer's disease pathology
| N (mean age at death ± SD) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | Study | Clinical AD | Control | Association | Conclusions |
| C2 | Heitner et al. 1997 [47]; USA | 49 DM, 52 non-DM | Negative | No differences between diabetic and age-matched non-diabetic cases in severity of AD pathology | |
| C2 | Itoh et al. 1999 [45]; Japan | 48 (84.7 ± 7.3) | 99 (85.9 ± 7.9) | Negative | No association between cerebral atherosclerosis and density of NPs (r = -0.1, P = 0.23) |
| C2 | Roher et al. 2004 [42]; USA | 10 (87.9 ± 5.9) | 10 (86.7 ± 4.1) | Positive | Atherosclerosis score was correlated with NPs (r = 0.71, P-value not provided) and NFTs (r = 0.63, P-value not provided). |
| C2 | Honig et al. 2005 [44]; USA | 921 dementia (78.8 ± 8.8) | 133 non-dementia (82.9 ± 10.0) | Positive | Severe atherosclerosis was associated with NPs (OR = 5.7, 95% CI 1.3 to 25.5) after adjustment for age, sex, and cerebral infarct, not Braak stage |
| C2 | Beeri et al. 2006 [43]; USA | 57 definite (88.9 ± 7.2); 12 probable (87.6 ± 9.3); 12 possible (85.4 ± 10.6) |
18 (85.7 ± 10.6) | Positive | Coronary artery disease was significantly associated with all NPs and NFTs in the hippocampus (r ranging from 0.22 to 0.29), especially for APOE ε4 allele carriers (r = 0.34 to 0.47). Aortic atherosclerosis was not associated with either NPs or NFTs |
| C2 | Beach et al. 2007 [41]; USA | 215 (82.6 ± 8.2) | 92 (84.3 ± 6.8) | Positive | Severe atherosclerosis was associated with higher risk of AD (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.69) after adjustment for age, gender, and APOE ε4 |
| C2 | Aho et al. 2006 [50]; Finland | - | 541 (484 with CVL, 68 ± 1; 57 without CVL, 71 ± 2) | Negative | No association between atherosclerosis and frequency of Aβ positivity after adjustment for age and Braak stage (no details provided) |
| C2 | Luoto et al. 2009 [46]; Finland | - | 466 (70.8 ± 11.5) | Negative | Neither NPs (r = 0.19, P = 0.70) nor NFTs (r = 0.18, P = 0.36) were associated with cerebral atherosclerosis after adjustment for age |
Aβ, amyloid-beta; AD, Alzheimer's disease; CI, confidence interval; CVL, cerebrovascular lesion; DM, diabetes mellitus; NFT, neurofibrillary tangle; NP, neuritic plaque; OR, odds ratio; SD, standard deviation.