Brain Volume and Survival from Age 78 to 85: The Contribution of Alzheimer‐Type Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings

Abstract

RESULTS: Thirty-seven of 98 (34.9%) participants died during follow-up. After adjustment for cognitive ability at time of MRI examination, childhood intelligence, sex, hypertension, smoking history, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and age at MRI, proportion of intracranial volume occupied by the brain (brain fraction) predicted death before age 85 (P 5.04). Participants with brain fraction less than 0.726 had more than twice the relative risk (2.8, 95% confidence interval 5 1.1-7.3) of death than participants with brain fraction greater 0.726. Lower survival was significantly associated with lower gray matter volumes in bilateral parietal and left frontoparietal areas and with lower white matter volumes in left parietal and right posterior temporal regions. Cox regression analysis showed that parietal white matter volume (P 5.003), a subsequent diagnosis of dementia (Po.001), and sex (P 5.004) were independent predictors of survival. CONCLUSION:In participants aged 78 to 79, a lower global brain fraction predicted survival to approximately age 85. Smaller regional volumetric brain reductions, seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD), also predicted survival independent of dementia. The presence of prodromal AD probably explain the main findings. J Am Geriatr Soc 58:688-695, 2010.

Survival in the pre-senile dementia frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 proteinopathy: effects of genetic, demographic and neuropathological variables

“…In the present study, lower brain weights were associated with better survival consistent with a gradual loss of brain volume in FTLD-TDP with disease progression. By contrast, in one study of AD, poorer survival was associated with lower gray matter volume, and smaller volume reductions in brain predicted better survival [56].…”

Structural brain changes and all-cause mortality in the elderly population—the mediating role of inflammation

“…Small vessel disease (SVD) is an incidental but frequent finding on brain scans of elderly individuals (Vermeer et al 2003;resonance tomography (MRI) by the brain imaging markers white matter lesions (WML) and lacunar infarcts (LI). While brain MRI has become a frequently used diagnostic tool, also in population-based epidemiologic studies, only few studies have examined the impact of structural brain changes on survival in elderly populations (Briley et al 2000;Bokura et al 2006;Kuller et al 2007;Ikram et al 2009;Staff et al 2010;Olesen et al 2011;Conijn et al 2011). In these studies, global vascular brain lesions and brain atrophy were associated with an increased risk of mortality in the elderly.…”

Impact of global cerebral atrophy on clinical outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage

“…On the other hand, brain atrophy is associated with cognitive decline in other situations in which there is no obvious initial brain injury. 30,37 It is possible that brain volumes changed due to changes in brain blood volumes. Finally, the clinical relevance of these findings is unknown and uncertain.…”

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