Assessment of cerebral microbleeds by susceptibility-weighted imaging in Alzheimer’s disease patients: A neuroimaging biomarker of the disease

Abstract

<div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="d6396697e146"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6396697e147">Purpose</h5> <p id="d6396697e149">The objective of this study was to correlate the presence and distribution of cerebral microbleeds in Alzheimer’s disease patients with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers (amyloid-beta and phosphorylated tau 181 protein levels) and cognitive decline by using susceptibility-weighted imaging magnetic resonance sequences at 1.5 T. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="d6396697e151"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6396697e152">Material and methods</h5> <p id="d6396697e154">Fifty-four consecutive Alzheimer’s disease patients underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 T to assess the presence and distribution of cerebral microbleeds on susceptibility-weighted imaging images. The images were analyzed in consensus by two neuroradiologists, each with at least 10 years’ experience. Dementia severity was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination score. </p> <p id="d6396697e156">A multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the associations between the number and location of cerebral microbleed lesions with the age, sex, duration of the disease, cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta and phosphorylated tau 181 protein levels, and cognitive functions. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="d6396697e158"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6396697e159">Results</h5> <p id="d6396697e161">A total of 296 microbleeds were observed in 54 patients; 38 patients (70.4%) had lobar distribution, 13 patients (24.1%) had non-lobar distribution, and the remaining three patients (5.6%) had mixed distribution, demonstrating that Alzheimer’s disease patients present mainly a lobar distribution of cerebral microbleeds. </p> <p id="d6396697e163">The age and the duration of the disease were correlated with the number of lobar cerebral microbleeds ( <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001). </p> <p id="d6396697e168">Cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta, phosphorylated tau 181 protein levels, and cognitive decline were correlated with the number of lobar cerebral microbleeds in Alzheimer’s disease patients ( <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001). </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="d6396697e173"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6396697e174">Conclusion</h5> <p id="d6396697e176">Lobar distribution of cerebral microbleeds is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and the number of lobar cerebral microbleeds directly correlates with cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta and phosphorylated tau 181 protein levels and with the cognitive decline of Alzheimer’s disease patients. </p> </div>