TABLE 1.
Clinical, Demographic, and Neuropathological Characteristics by Diagnosis Category
| Diagnosis |
p value | Pair-wise comparison | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NC-LP (n = 8) | NC-HP (n = 7) | MCI (n = 7) | AD (n = 7) | |||
| Age (years) at death: | ||||||
| Mean ± SD (range) | 85.8 ± 5.2 (72–90) | 89.1 ± 6.2 (84–100) | 87.1 ± 3.8 (44–95) | 81.7 ± 9.1 (69–93) | 0.2* | — |
| Number (%) of males: | 5 (63%) | 3 (43%) | 3 (43%) | 5 (71%) | 0.6† | — |
| Years of education: | ||||||
| Mean ± SD (range) | 16.0 ± 2.6 (12–20) | 16.1 ± 0.9 (15–18) | 17.1 ± 1.1 (16–18) | 16.0 ± 2.3 (12–20) | 0.9* | — |
| Number (%) with ApoE ε4 allele | 1 (13%) | 1 (14%) | 3 (43%) | 4 (57%) | 0.06† | — |
| Number (%) with hypertension | 5 (63%) | 4 (57%) | 4 (57%) | 4 (57%) | 1.0† | — |
| MMSE | ||||||
| Mean ± SD (range) | 29.1 ± 0.8 (28–30) | 28.9 ± 1.5 (26–30) | 26.0 ± 1.9 (23–28) | 19.4 ± 4.1 (11–25) | 0.0001* | (NC-LP, NC-HP) > AD |
| Postmortem interval (hours) | ||||||
| Mean ± SD (range) | 3.8 ± 2.6 (1.8–10.0) | 3.8 ± 3.2 (1.3–10.8) | 3.4 ± 1.4 (1.2–6.0) | 4.4 ± 2.1 (2.7–8.5) | 0.6* | — |
| Identified microinfarcts | ||||||
| Mean ± SD (range) | 0.2 ± 0.4 (0–1) | 0.6 ± 0.8 (0–2) | 0.6 ± 0.8 (0–7) | 0.7 ± 1.0 (0–2) | 0.1* | — |
| Distribution of Braak scores: | ||||||
| 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| I/II | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.0005* | NC-LP < (NC-HP, AD) |
| III/IV | 0 | 7 | 4 | 3 | ||
| V/VI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| NIA Reagan diagnosis(likelihood of AD) | ||||||
| No AD | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Low | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0.02* | NC-LP < AD |
| Intermediate | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | ||
| High | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| CERAD diagnosis | ||||||
| No AD | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Possible | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0.07* | — |
| Probable | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Definite | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
AD, Alzheimer disease; CERAD, Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer disease; MCI, mild cognitive impairment; NC-LP, normal cognition-low AD pathology; NC-HP, normal cognition-high AD pathology.
*
Kruskal-Wallis test, with Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons.
†
Fisher exact test, with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.