Cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

We studied the frequency, severity, and clinical correlations of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in 117 CERAD subjects with autopsy-confirmed AD. Eighty-three percent showed at least a mild degree of amyloid angiopathy. Thirty of 117 brains (25.6%) showed moderate to severe CAA affecting the cerebral vessels in one or more cortical regions. These brains also showed a significantly higher frequency of hemorrhages or ischemic lesions than those of subjects with little or no amyloid angiopathy (43.3% versus 23.0%; odds ratio = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.1 to 6.2) High CAA scores also correlated with the presence of cerebral arteriosclerosis and with older age at onset of dementia. Our findings suggest that factors contributing to non-AD-related vascular pathology (e.g., atherosclerosis) may play a role in amyloid deposition in cerebral vessels in AD.