Impact of Racial Differences in Alzheimer Biomarkers
Cerebral impairment in older African Americans is related with smaller changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau biomarkers but greater influence from white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden compared with impairment in older white Americans, according to a study from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. These race-associated variance in CSF tau markers may result in underdiagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) in African Americans, according to the researchers. This is the primary research to directly look at race, CSF AD biomarker levels, and the relationships between WMH and cognition. Background The research team noted that the occurrence of AD is nearly doubled in African Americans compared with whites. Although African Americans also reportedly are more likely than whites to have nonamnestic forms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and slower decay to and through dementia, postmortem studies show that they have greater ischemia, which...