Vascular changes in neck may link to Alzheimer’s

The jugular venous reflux (JVR) occurs when the pressure gradient reverses the direction of blood flow in the veins, causing blood to leak backwards into the brain. A small pilot study has found an association between JVR and white matter changes in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and those with mild cognitive impairment. This suggests that cerebral venous outflow impairment might play a role in the development of white matter changes in those with Alzheimer’s.

JVR occurs when the internal jugular vein valves don’t open and close properly, which occurs more frequently in the elderly. The study involved 12 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, 24 with MCI, and 17 age-matched controls. Those with severe JVR were more likely to have hypertension, more and more severe white matter changes, and tended to have higher cerebrospinal fluid volumes.

Further research is needed to validate these preliminary findings.

http://www.futurity.org/vascular-changes-neck-may-alzheimers-role/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uab-aav112513.php

Chung, C-P. et al. 2013. Jugular Venous Reflux and White Matter Abnormalities in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 39 (3), 601-609.

Related News

A study involving 254 people with dementia living at home has found that 99% of people with dementia and 97% of their caregivers had one or more unmet needs, 90% of which were safety-related.

A new U.S. study suggests that Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are markedly under-reported on death certificates and medical records. Death certificates tend to only provide an immediate cause, such as pneumonia, and don’t mention the underlying condition that provoked it.

It’s often argued that telling people that they carry genes increasing their risk of Alzheimer’s will simply upset them to no purpose. A new study challenges that idea.

11 new genetic susceptibility factors for Alzheimer’s identified

Understanding a protein's role in familial Alzheimer's disease

Analysis of data from 237 patients with mild cognitive impairment (mean age 79.9) has found that, compared to those carrying the ‘normal’ ApoE3 gene (the most common variant of the ApoE gene), the ApoE4 carriers showed markedly greater rates of shrinkage in 13 of 15 brain regions thought to be k

Analysis of data from more than 8,000 people, most of them older than 60, has revealed that, among the 5,000 people initially tested cognitively normal, carrying one copy of the “Alzheimer’s gene” (ApoE4) only slightly increased men’s risk of developing

Analysis of 700 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative has revealed a genetic mutation (rs4728029) that’s associated with people who develop Alzheimer’s pathology but don’t show clinical symptoms in their lifetime.

Analysis of brain scans and cognitive scores of 64 older adults from the NIA's Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (average age 76) has found that, between the most cognitively stable and the most declining (over a 12-year period), there was no significant difference in the total amount of amy

A pilot study involving 94 older adults, of whom 18 had Alzheimer’s, 24 had

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news
Error | About memory

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.