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Published on: December 18, 2016
Subjective cognitive complaints and amyloid burden in cognitively normal older individuals
Rebecca E Amariglio1, J Alex Becker2, Jeremy Carmasin2
1Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Abstract:
Accumulating evidence suggests that subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) may indicate subtle cognitive decline characteristic of individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we sought to build upon previous studies by associating SCC and amyloid-β deposition using positron emission tomography with Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB-PET) in cognitively normal older individuals. One-hundred thirty one subjects (mean age 73.5±6) were administered three subjective cognitive questionnaires and a brief neuropsychological battery. A relationship between a subjective memory complaints composite score and cortical PiB binding was found to be significant, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. By contrast, there were no significant relationships between objective cognitive measures of memory and executive functions and cortical PiB binding. Our study suggests that SCC may be an early indicator of AD pathology detectable prior to significant objective impairment.
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