Braak Stage, Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, and Cognitive Decline in Early Alzheimer's Disease.

The aim of this study was to determine the interaction between cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and Braak staging on cognition in the elderly. The study used a total of 141 subjects consisting of 72 non-cognitively impaired (NCI), 33 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 36 Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases displaying Braak stages 0-II and III from the Rush Religious Order Study cohort. The association between Braak stage and CAA status and cognition was evaluated using a series of regression models that adjusted for age at death, sex, education, APOE epsilon 4 status, and Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) neuropathological diagnosis. Individuals with CAA were more likely to be classified as Braak stage III relative to those without CAA [OR = 2.33, 95% CI (1.06, 5.14), p = 0.04]. A significant interaction was found between Braak stage and CAA status on a global cognitive score (beta = -0.58, SE = 0.25, p = 0.02). Episodic memory also showed a significant association between Braak stage and CAA (beta = -0.75, SE = 0.35, p = 0.03). These data suggest that there is a significant interaction between tau pathology and cerebrovascular lesions on cognition within the AD clinical spectrum.