2007 Heart-Brain summit proceedings

Hippocampal volume change
in the Alzheimer Disease Cholesterol-Lowering Treatment trial

D. Larry Sparks, PhD

Roberts Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Sun Health Research
Institute, Sun City, AZ

Larry.Sparks@sunhealth.org

 

Susan K. Lemieux, PhD
Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University School of Medicine,
Morgantown, WV

 

Marc W. Haut, PhD
Departments of Behavioral Medicine/Psychiatry and Neurology, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV

 

Leslie C. Baxter, PhD
Neuroimaging Neuropsychology Laboratory, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ

 

Sterling C. Johnson, PhD
Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin'Madison,

Madison, WI

 

Lisa M. Sparks, BS
Roberts Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,
Sun Health Research Institute,
Sun City, AZ.

 

Hemalatha Sampath, BSEE
Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University School of Medicine,
Morgantown, WV

 

Jean E. Lopez, RN
Cleo Roberts Clinical Research Center, Sun Health Research Institute,
Sun City, AZ

 

Marwan H. Sabbagh, MD
Cleo Roberts Clinical Research Center, Sun Health Research Institute,
Sun City, AZ

 

Donald J. Connor, PhD
Cleo Roberts Clinical Research Center, Sun Health Research Institute,
Sun City, AZ

ABSTRACT

Numerous clinical studies suggest a link between elevated cholesterol and increased risk of Alzheimer disease (AD), and the preponderance of data suggests that statin therapy may reduce the risk of AD later in life. The first clinical investigation of statin therapy in patients with AD, the AD Cholesterol-Lowering Treatment (ADCLT) trial, found that atorvastatin 80 mg/day was associated with improvements relative to placebo on some, but not all, cognitive measures after 6 months and 1 year of therapy.We report here findings from a pilot ADCLT substudy showing a nonsignificant reduction in total hippocampal volume with 1 year of atorvastatin therapy compared with placebo, driven by a highly significant reduction in right hippocampal volume with atorvastatin therapy.

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