Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Full- versus Sub-Regional Quantification of Amyloid-Beta Load on Mouse Brain Sections
Published on: May 19, 2022
Spatial extent as a sensitive amyloid-PET metric in preclinical Alzheimer's disease
Michelle E Farrell1, Emma G Thibault2, J Alex Becker2
1Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Introduction:
Spatial extent-based measures of how far amyloid beta (Aβ) has spread throughout the neocortex may be more sensitive than traditional Aβ-positron emission tomography (PET) measures of Aβ level for detecting early Aβ deposits in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) and improve understanding of Aβ's association with tau proliferation and cognitive decline.
Methods:
Pittsburgh Compound-B (PIB)-PET scans from 261 cognitively unimpaired older adults from the Harvard Aging Brain Study were used to measure Aβ level (LVL; neocortical PIB DVR) and spatial extent (EXT), calculated as the proportion of the neocortex that is PIB+.
Results:
EXT enabled earlier detection of Aβ deposits longitudinally confirmed to reach a traditional LVL-based threshold for Aβ+ within 5 years. EXT improved prediction of cognitive decline (Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite) and tau proliferation (flortaucipir-PET) over LVL.
Discussion:
These findings indicate EXT may be more sensitive to Aβ's role in preclinical AD than level and improve targeting of individuals for AD prevention trials.
Highlights:
Aβ spatial extent (EXT) was measured as the percentage of the neocortex with elevated Pittsburgh Compound-B. Aβ EXT improved detection of Aβ below traditional PET thresholds. Early regional Aβ deposits were spatially heterogeneous. Cognition and tau were more closely tied to Aβ EXT than Aβ level. Neocortical tau onset aligned with reaching widespread neocortical Aβ.
