EPIDEMIOLOGY OF AGING AND DEMENTIA - AUTOPSY RESEARCH

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：我们的目的是获得 更好地了解认知能力下降和痴呆症的原因， 这项研究对大约280名尸检的男性进行了死亡时的大脑结构研究， 健康、疾病、认知功能、遗传和生理结构， 中年暴露于一长串的个人和环境因素， 通过在一个 30+年间隔。当添加到已经收集的类似数据中时， 资金（从NIA合同）的尸检总数可用于 分析结果约为640。研究对象是日裔美国人， 夏威夷，78岁以上，参加过檀香山心脏 从1965年开始实施。定义结构特征的方法 将包括大体尸检、显微镜检查和MRI检查。 在解剖前修复了大脑在固定之前，多个大脑样本 将取出组织和CSF并冷冻用于将来的研究。具体 待研究的结构终点包括神经胶质细胞的密度 缠结、老年斑、神经炎斑和路易体;小血管 卒中、大血管卒中、动脉壁结构的明确变化 （中小血管）;脑大小/萎缩（分为灰色和白色 物质）和特定脑区（海马体、杏仁核、内侧核）的体积 颞叶，总新皮层）。分析将集中在：（1）尸检 验证痴呆症的临床诊断，（2）开发“新” 血管性痴呆的神经病理学标准，（3）风险识别 预测阿尔茨海默病、血管性痴呆和个体的因素 （4）结构端点之间的相互关系， 结构端点，因为它们反映了相互作用的过程涉及~n 痴呆症的发病机制。使用的所有方法将允许与 另一项针对欧洲血统女性的研究（The Nun Study）.所有的信息和材料将被存档以备将来研究之用 使用.

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract): Our purpose is to gain a better understanding of the causes of cognitive decline and dementia through the study of brain structures at death in approximately 280 autopsied men whose health, illnesses, cognitive functioning, genetic and physiologic constitution, and midlife exposures to a long list of personal and environmental factors have been prospectively defined through repeated interview and examination over a 30+ year interval. When added to similar data already collected with prior funding (from an NIA contract) the total number of autopsies available for analysis will be approximately 640. The subjects are Japanese-American men in Hawaii aged 78+ years at death who have participated in the Honolulu Heart Program since it began in 1965. The methods for defining structural features will include gross autopsy, microscopic examination, and MRI examination of the fixed brain before dissection. Prior to fixation, multiple samples of brain tissue and CSF will be removed and frozen for future study. The specific structural endpoints to be studied include densities of neurofibrillary tangles, senile plaques, neuritic plaques, and Lewy bodies; small vessel strokes, large vessel strokes, defined changes in arterial wall architecture (medium and small vessels); brain size/atrophy (segmented into gray and white matter), and volumes of specified brain regions (hippocampus, amygdala, mesial temporal lobe, total neocortex). Analyses will be focused on: (1) autopsy verification of clinical diagnoses of dementia, (2) development of "new" neuropathologic criteria for vascular dementia, (3) identification of risk factors predicting Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and the individual structural endpoints mentioned, and (4) inter-relationships among the structural endpoints as they reflect interacting processes involved ~n the pathogenesis of dementia. All methods used will allow comparisons with corresponding data generated by another study in European-ancestry women (the Nun Study). All information and materials will be archived for future research use.