Stephanie Doering, Austin McCullough, Brian A Gordon, Charles D Chen, Nicole McKay, Diana Hobbs, Sarah Keefe, Shaney Flores, Jalen Scott, Hunter Smith, Stephen Jarman, Kelley Jackson, Russ C Hornbeck, Beau M Ances, Chengjie Xiong, Andrew J Aschenbrenner, Jason Hassenstab, Carlos Cruchaga, Alisha Daniels, Randall J Bateman, John C Morris, Tammie L S Benzinger
BACKGROUND: Neuroimaging studies often quantify tau burden in standardized brain regions to assess Alzheimer disease (AD) progression. However, this method ignores another key biological process in which tau spreads to additional brain regions. We have developed a metric for calculating the extent tau pathology has spread throughout the brain and evaluate the relationship between this metric and tau burden across early stages of AD. METHODS: 445 cross-sectional participants (aged ≥ 50) who had MRI, amyloid PET, tau PET, and clinical testing were separated into disease-stage groups based on amyloid positivity and cognitive status (older cognitively normal control, preclinical AD, and symptomatic AD)...
March 28, 2024: EBioMedicine