Quantitative electroencephalography in cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Biomarkers

Background:

• Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a cerebrovascular disorder associated with cognitive decline and microhemorrhages.
• Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) measures brain activity patterns, potentially reflecting underlying neuropathology.
• Cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) is a marker of microhemorrhage in CAA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between qEEG measures and cognitive function in patients with CAA.
• To examine the relationship between qEEG and cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) in CAA.
• To assess qEEG as a potential biomarker for cognitive status in CAA.

Main Methods:

• Included 92 patients with sporadic (sCAA) and Dutch-type (D-CAA) cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
• Analyzed spectral measures and phase lag index (PLI) from qEEG.
• Assessed cognition using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and cSS presence via 3T-MRI.

Main Results:

• Lower average peak frequency and higher spectral ratio on qEEG correlated with lower MoCA scores, irrespective of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage history.
• The phase lag index (PLI) did not correlate with MoCA scores.
• No significant difference in qEEG slowing was found between participants with and without cSS.

Conclusions:

• Spectral qEEG measures, but not PLI, reflect cognitive performance in patients with CAA.
• No association was found between qEEG slowing and cSS.
• qEEG shows potential as a valuable biomarker for cognitive assessment in CAA, particularly in challenging testing scenarios.