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Updated: Aug 22, 2026

Using Retinal Imaging to Study Dementia
Published on: November 6, 2017
Brain arterial dilatation and the risk of Alzheimer's disease
Jose Gutierrez1, Vanessa Guzman2, Farid Khasiyev1
1Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Introduction:
We tested the hypothesis that brain arterial dilatation increases the risk of Alzheimer's dementia (AD).
Methods:
We studied dementia-free participants in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project who had a brain MRI and post-MRI dementia adjudication. We measured the axial T2-proton density diameters of the intracranial carotids and basilar diameters and used Cox models to obtain AD hazard ratios and 95% intervals.
Results:
Of 953 participants (mean age 77 ± 7 y, women 64%, 71% nonwhite) followed on average for 3 ± 3 years, 76 (8%) developed AD. In a model adjusted for demographics, vascular risks, apolipoprotein E (APOE)-ε4, and white matter hyperintensities, larger carotid diameters increased the risk of AD, defined categorically as ≥ 90th percentile (HR 4.34, 1.70-11.11) or continuously (HR 1.44 per SD, 1.07-1.94).
Discussion:
Understanding the pathophysiology of the association between AD and brain arterial dilatation may reveal new clues to the vascular contributions to AD.
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