Taking a serious knock to the head may be linked to future risk of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers reported last night.
A team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, carried out brain scans on 448 people without any signs of memory problems and 141 people with mild cognitive impairment, that is, memory and thinking problems. All were aged 70 years or above. Information was taken on previous brain injury that involved loss of consciousness or memory.
Brain injuries had occurred in 18% of those with thinking or memory problems, and 17% of those without such difficulties.
No differences were seen on brain scans among the people without memory and thinking impairments, whether or not they had head trauma. But those with memory and thinking impairments and a history of head trauma had an 18% higher level of Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid plaques.
Full details appear in the 26 December issue of the journal Neurology.
Lead author, Dr Michelle Mielke, said: "Interestingly, in people with a history of concussion, a difference in the amount of brain plaques was found only in those with memory and thinking problems, not in those who were cognitively normal.
"Our results add merit to the idea that concussion and Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology may be related. However, the fact that we did not find a relationship in those without memory and thinking problems suggests that any association between head trauma and amyloid is complex."
Previous studies of Alzheimer’s and concussion have indicated that the pattern of abnormalities in the brain’s white matter after mild traumatic brain injury resembles that found in early Alzheimer’s disease.
Mielke, M. et al. Neurology 26 December 2013 [abstract]
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