florbetapir-f-18 and Brain-Diseases

Patients with late-life depression may be at the preclinical stage of dementia. However, the neurodegenerative processes in late-life depression are poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the distribution patterns of amyloid pathology and neurodegeneration in a depressive population without dementia.. Most of the control subjects (81.8%) were biomarker-negative, in contrast to the MCI MDD patients (37.5%). A relatively high proportion of the MCI MDD patients (12.5%) exhibited both amyloid positivity and hippocampal atrophy as compared to the control subjects (4.5%) and non-MCI patients (5.1%). However, a considerable proportion of the MCI MDD patients (29.2%) were categorized into the group with hippocampal atrophy alone, and negative amyloid deposition, as compared to the control subjects (0%) and non-MCI patients (5.1%).. This study highlights the expected heterogeneity of the processes of neurodegeneration in MDD patients. The diverse neurodegenerative processes may have important etiologic and therapeutic implications regarding neurodegenerative pathophysiology in late-life depression.

Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides; Amyloidosis; Aniline Compounds; Atrophy; Biomarkers; Brain Diseases; Cognitive Dysfunction; Depressive Disorder, Major; Ethylene Glycols; Female; Hippocampus; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Positron-Emission Tomography; Radiopharmaceuticals; Temporal Lobe