Mineralized brain vessels vary by region in Alzheimer disease

In an autopsy study of 265 human decedents with Alzheimer disease neuropathology, researchers evaluated mineralized blood vessels across three brain areas. The team examined tissue from the posterior hippocampus, putamen, and globus pallidus collected across three Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers. After adjusting for demographic factors, vessel mineralization showed no association with sex, ethnicity, education, APOE ε4 status, or cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Mineralized vessels did associate with état criblé in the putamen and globus pallidus. Concomitant Lewy body disease was associated with reduced vessel mineralization in the posterior hippocampus and globus pallidus. A nominal link with a history of transient ischemic attacks did not remain significant after correction for multiple comparisons. These patterns identify vascular mineralization as a regionally selective cerebrovascular feature in Alzheimer disease.