Assessment of amyloid β in pathologically confirmed frontotemporal dementia syndromes

Rachel H Tan; Jillian J Kril; Yue Yang; Nicole Tom; John R Hodges; Victor L Villemagne; Christopher C Rowe; Cristian E Leyton; John B J Kwok; Lars M Ittner; Glenda M Halliday

doi:10.1016/j.dadm.2017.05.005

Assessment of amyloid β in pathologically confirmed frontotemporal dementia syndromes

Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2017 May 29:9:10-20. doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2017.05.005. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Rachel H Tan^{1

2

3}, Jillian J Kril⁴, Yue Yang^{1

3}, Nicole Tom³, John R Hodges^{1

2

3}, Victor L Villemagne⁵, Christopher C Rowe⁵, Cristian E Leyton^{3

6}, John B J Kwok^{1

2}, Lars M Ittner^{2

3}, Glenda M Halliday^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
² School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
³ Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Discipline of Pathology, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Centre for PET, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶ Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline Speech Pathology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

Introduction: The diagnostic utility of in vivo amyloid β (Aβ) imaging to aid in the clinical distinction between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease remains unclear without data on the prevalence and severity of Aβ in pathologically confirmed FTD syndromes.

Methods: Aβ was assessed in 98 autopsy-confirmed FTD and 36 control cases, and the pathological accuracy of ¹¹C-Pittsburgh compound B (PiB)-positron emission tomography imaging was assessed in a subset of FTD cases (n = 15).

Results: Aβ was identified in a similar proportion of FTD syndromes and age-matched controls and increases with age. Alzheimer's disease pathology was identified in all cases with high PiB retention and in one case with low PiB retention. We further demonstrate a strong regional correlation between volume fraction of histological Aβ with PiB standard uptake value ratio scaled to the white matter.

Discussion: The present study provides a pathologic reference to assist in the interpretation of in vivo assessments in FTD syndromes.

Keywords: 11C-Pittsburgh compound B; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid β; Diagnostic; Frontotemporal dementia syndromes.

Grants and funding

R28 AA012725/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States