Tauopathy in veterans with long-term posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury

• DOI: 10.1007/s00259-018-4241-7
• Publication Date: 2019-01-08T22:54:01Z
• Authors: Abdalla Z. Mohamed; Paul Cumming; Jürgen Götz; Fatima Nasrallah
• Keywords: Tauopathy; Neurocognitive

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have emerged as independent risk factors for an earlier onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), although the pathophysiology underlying this is unclear. Postmortem studies revealed extensive cerebral accumulation tau following multiple single TBI incidents. We hypothesized that a history and/or PTSD may induce AD-like pattern in nondemented war veterans. Vietnam War veterans (mean age 71.4 years) with war-related underwent [18F]AV145 PET part US Department Defense Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Subjects were classified into four groups: healthy controls (n = 21), 10), 32), TBI+PTSD 17). [18F]AV1451 reference tissue-normalized standardized uptake value (SUVr) maps, scaled to cerebellar grey matter, tested differences between groups using voxel-wise region interest approaches, SUVr results correlated neuropsychological test scores. Compared controls, all showed widespread neocortical regions overlapping typical atypical patterns distribution. The group higher than other clinical groups. extent tauopathy was positively deficit scores A manifest neurocognitive deficits association increased deposition decades after their trauma. Further investigation required establish burden dementia imparted by PTSD.