Spatial relation between microbleeds and amyloid deposits in amyloid angiopathy.

Journal: Annals Of Neurology
Published:
Abstract

Advanced cerebrovascular β-amyloid deposition (cerebral amyloid angiopathy, CAA) is associated with cerebral microbleeds, but the precise relationship between CAA burden and microbleeds is undefined. We used T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and noninvasive amyloid imaging with Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) to analyze the spatial relationship between CAA and microbleeds. On coregistered positron emission tomography (PET) and MRI images, PiB retention was increased at microbleed sites compared to simulated control lesions (p = 0.002) and declined with increasing distance from the microbleed (p < 0.0001). These findings indicate that microbleeds occur preferentially in local regions of concentrated amyloid and support therapeutic strategies aimed at reducing vascular amyloid deposition.

Authors
Gregory Dierksen, Maureen Skehan, Muhammad Khan, Jed Jeng, R N Nandigam, John Becker, Ashok Kumar, Krista Neal, Rebecca Betensky, Matthew Frosch, Jonathan Rosand, Keith Johnson, Anand Viswanathan, David Salat, Steven Greenberg