Differentiating Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy From Alzheimer's Disease Using Dual Amyloid and Tau Positron Emission Tomography.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Although amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) might provide a molecular diagnosis for cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), it does not have sufficient specificity for this condition relative to incipient Alzheimer's disease (AD). To identify a regional amyloid uptake pattern specific to CAA, we attempted to reduce this overlap by selecting "pure CAA" (i.e., fulfilling the criteria for probable CAA but without tau PET AD signature) and "pure AD" (i.e., positive amyloid PET and presence of tau PET AD signature, but without lobar hemorrhagic lesions). We hypothesized that occipital tracer uptake relative to the whole cortex (WC) would be higher in patients with pure CAA and may serve as a specific diagnostic marker.

Methods

Patients who fulfilled thes

SUBMITTER: Tsai HH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11834354 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature