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AlzRisk Paper Detail
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Reference: Ravaglia, 2005
Cohort: Conselice Study of Brain Aging
Risk Factor: Homocysteine


Average Follow-up Time Detail
"Mean follow-up time was 3.8 ± 0.8 y."

Exposure Detail
Because of plasma tHcy highly skewed distribution, the use of natural log-transformed values was provided for the analyses. "We defined hyperhomocysteinemia as a plasma tHcy concentration > 15umol/L, corresponding to the 95th percentile among a selected subsample of healthy CSBA participants who were not taking drugs known to affect homocysteine metabolism and had good B vitamin status and normal renal function."

"The overall geometric mean plasma tHcy concentration was 13.0 (95%CI: 6.3-26.9) µmol/L and ranged from 5.5 to 80 µmol/L. Hyperhomocystenemia was present in 26.6% of the subjects."

Ethnicity Detail
Italian population

Age Detail
Mean age was 72.6 ± 5.7 y for normal plasma tHcy (≤15 µmol/L, n=599). Mean age was 76.1 ± 7.2 y for hyperhomocysteinemia (>15 µmol/L, n=217).

Screening and Diagnosis Detail
Screening Method:
MMSEMini-Mental State Examination (Folstein 1975)

AD Diagnosis:
NINCDS ADRDA National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association Criteria (McKhann 1984)

Total dementia definition: Dementia diagnosis via DSM-IV.

"AD was diagnosed on the basis of NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for probable or possible AD."

Covariates & Analysis Detail
Analysis Type:
Cox proportional hazards regression

Ravaglia et al (Ravaglia, 2007)reported that hyperhomocysteinemia was independetly associated with Alzheimer's disease (HR,1.91; 95%CI, 1.02-3.56) but not vascular dementia risk. No inflammatory marker (CRP, IL6, plasma alpha-1-antichymotrypsin), alone or in combination, predicted AD risk whereas the combination of high CRP and high IL6 was associated with risk of VaD (HR,2.56, 95%CI, 1.21-5.50) independently of socio-demiographic confounders, traditional risk factors and hyperhomocysteinemia.

AD Covariates:
Aage
Eeducation
Ggender
APOE4APOE e4 genotype
CRTserum creatinine
FOLserum folate
VTBvitamin B12

TD Covariates:
Aage
Eeducation
Ggender
APOE4APOE e4 genotype
CRTserum creatinine
FOLserum folate
VTBvitamin B12