Reduced gray matter volume in normal adults with a maternal family history of Alzheimer disease.

Neurology. 2010 Jan 12;74(2):113-20.

Reduced gray matter volume in normal adults with a maternal family history of Alzheimer disease.
Honea RA, Swerdlow RH, Vidoni ED, Goodwin J, Burns JM.

University of Kansas School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 2100 West 36th Ave., Suite 110, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. rhonea@kumc.edu

OBJECTIVE: A consistently identified risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD) is family history of dementia, with maternal transmission significantly more frequent than paternal transmission. A history of maternal AD may be related to AD-like glucose consumption in cognitively healthy subjects. In this cross-sectional study, we tested whether cognitively healthy people with a family history of AD have less gray matter volume (GMV), an endophenotype for late-onset AD, than individuals with no family history, and whether decreases in GMV are different in subjects with a maternal family history. METHODS: As part of the Kansas University Brain Aging Project, 67 cognitively intact individuals with a maternal history of late-onset AD (FHm, n = 16), a paternal history of AD (FHp, n = 8), or no parental history of AD (FH-, n = 43), similar in age, gender, education, and Mini-Mental State Examination score, were scanned at 3 T. We used voxel-based morphometry to examine GMV differences between groups, controlling for age, gender, and apoE4. RESULTS: Cognitively healthy individuals with a family history of late-onset AD had significantly decreased GMV in the precuneus, middle frontal, inferior frontal, and superior frontal gyri compared with FH- individuals. FHm subjects had significantly smaller inferior frontal, middle frontal, precuneus, and lingual gyri compared with FH- and FHp subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, maternal family history of Alzheimer disease (AD) in cognitively normal individuals is associated with lower gray matter volume in AD-vulnerable brain regions. These data complement and extend reports of cerebral metabolic differences in subjects with a maternal family history.

PMID: 20065246 [PubMed - in process]