Clinical-Neuropathological Correlations of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Latino Volunteers

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Soria, Jose A.^a | Huisa, Branko N.^{a; e} | Edland, Steven D.^{a; c; e} | Litvan, Irene^{a; e} | Peavy, Guerry M.^{a; e} | Salmon, David P.^{a; e} | Hansen, Lawrence A.^{a; b; e} | Galasko, Douglas R.^{a; e} | Brewer, James B.^{a; d; e} | González, Hector M.^{a; e} | Rissman, Robert A.^{a; e; f; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | [b] Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | [c] Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | [d] Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | [e] Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | [f] VA San Diego Health Care System, La Jolla, CA, USA

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Robert A. Rissman, PhD, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, MTF 309 M/C 0624, La Jolla, CA 92093-0624, USA. Tel.: +1 858 246 0140; Fax: +1 858 246 0139; E-mail: rrissman@ucsd.edu.

Abstract: Clinical, neuropsychological, and neurological procedures used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias were largely developed and validated in well-educated, non-Latino, English-speaking populations. Sociocultural and genetic differences in Latinos might influence the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of AD and other dementias. We aim to compare the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of AD and related dementias in Latinos with the corresponding neuropathological diagnosis. From the UCSD Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center longitudinal cohort, we selected all Latino participants who had autopsy neuropathological studies from 1991 to 2017. Participants underwent annual neurological clinical evaluations, standard neuropsychological tests, neuroimaging, and genotyping of Apolipoprotein E. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the clinical diagnosis of AD against the primary pathological diagnosis. Of the 34 participants with a primary neuropathological diagnosis of AD, 33 (97.1%) were correctly clinically diagnosed as having AD at the last clinical evaluation, and 1 was incorrectly diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies. Of the 19 participants without a primary neuropathological diagnosis of AD, 8 were incorrectly clinically diagnosed with probable AD at the last clinic evaluation. The clinical diagnosis of AD at the last clinical evaluation had 97.1% sensitivity and 57.9% specificity for autopsy-verified AD. In this Latino cohort, clinicians predicted AD pathological findings with high sensitivity but moderate specificity. Tangle-only dementia was the most common misdiagnosis. Our study suggests that current procedures and instruments to clinically determine AD in Latinos have high sensitivity compared with neuropathology, but specificity needs to be improved.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Latino, Lewy bodies, neuropathology

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-180789

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 1539-1548, 2018