Correlation of Lobar Cerebral Microbleeds with Amyloid, Perfusion, and Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Despite the well-documented relationship between lobar cerebral microbleeds (lCMB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is limited knowledge about the role of lCMB in AD pathology. OBJECTIVE: To understand the nature of this relationship, we investigated the association between lCMB, amyloid load, perfusion, and metabolism. METHODS: Participants with AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls were recruited and scanned with 11C-Pittsburg-Compound B (PiB), Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, and susceptibility-weighted MRI. Early PiB-PET frames were used to estimate perfusion. The association between lCMB and PET uptake in each anatomical lobe was measured using multiple regression models. RESULTS: The presence of lCMB predicted increased total (p