Unraveling the clinical–pathological correlations of subjects with isolated and mixed neurodegenerative processes in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center dataset

• Published in: Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology Vol. 84; no. 3; pp. 177 - 194
• Main Authors: Hiya, Satomi, Maldonado-Díaz, Carolina, Rohde, Susan K, Gonzales, Mitzi M, Canbeldek, Leyla, Kulumani Mahadevan, Lakshmi S, Yokoda, Raquel T, Sullivan, A Campbell, Parker, Alicia S, White, Charles L, Daoud, Elena V, Flores-Almazan, Victoria, Crary, John F, Farrell, Kurt, Walker, Jamie M, Richardson, Timothy E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 21.02.2025
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Alzheimer Disease - pathology; Brain - pathology; Cohort Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neurodegenerative Diseases - epidemiology; Neurodegenerative Diseases - pathology; Original; cerebrovascular disease (CVD); limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE-NC); Lewy body dementia (LBD); Pick disease (PiD); frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD-TDP); primary age-related tauopathy (PART); Alzheimer disease neuropathologic change (ADNC)
• DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nlae134
• ISSN: 0022-3069; 1554-6578

Although Alzheimer disease neuropathologic change (ADNC) is the most common pathology underlying clinical dementia, the presence of multiple comorbid neuropathologies is increasingly being recognized as a major contributor to the worldwide dementia burden. We analyzed 1051 subjects with specific combinations of isolated and mixed pathologies and conducted multivariate logistic regression analysis on a cohort of 4624 cases with mixed pathologies to systematically explore the independent cognitive contributions of each pathology. Alzheimer disease neuropathologic change and limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change (LATE-NC) were both associated with a primary clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) and were characterized by an amnestic dementia phenotype, while only ADNC associated with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA). In subjects with ADNC and comorbid LATE-NC, Lewy body disease, and/or cerebrovascular disease, the clinical phenotype was usually diagnosed during life as “Probable AD.” Conversely, the combination of ADNC with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), or corticobasal degeneration (CBD) resulted in a mixed clinical picture, with variable features of amnestic dementia, PPA subtypes, behavioral variant FTD, PSP syndrome, and CBD syndrome. These findings elucidate the cumulative effects of mixed pathologies and provide insights into interactions between neurodegenerative pathologies contributing to a variety of clinical dementia presentations.