{"id":42204,"date":"2017-01-13T09:46:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T14:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=42204"},"modified":"2017-01-13T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T17:22:57","slug":"researchers-find-link-between-concussions-and-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2017\/01\/13\/researchers-find-link-between-concussions-and-alzheimers-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Find Link Between Concussions and Alzheimer\u2019s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"COM_alz
Histopathologic image of cerebral cortex of a person with onset Alzheimer’s disease.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New research has found concussions accelerate Alzheimer\u2019s disease-related brain atrophy and cognitive decline in people who are at genetic risk for the condition. The findings, which appear in the journal Brain<\/em>, show promise for detecting the influence of concussion on neurodegeneration.<\/p>\n

Moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury is one of the strongest environmental risk factors for developing neurodegenerative diseases such as late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease, although it is unclear whether mild traumatic brain injury or concussion also increases this risk.<\/p>\n

BUSM researchers studied 160 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, some who had suffered one or more concussions and some who had never had a concussion. Using MRI imaging, the thickness of their cerebral cortex was measured in seven regions that are the first to show atrophy in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, as well as seven control regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that having a concussion was associated with lower cortical thickness in brain regions that are the first to be affected in Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d explained corresponding author Jasmeet Hayes, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at BUSM and research psychologist at the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System. \u201cOur results suggest that when combined with genetic factors, concussions may be associated with accelerated cortical thickness and memory decline in Alzheimer\u2019s disease relevant areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of particular note was that these brain abnormalities were found in a relatively young group, with the average age being 32 years old. \u201cThese findings show promise for detecting the influence of concussion on neurodegeneration early in one\u2019s lifetime, thus it is important to document the occurrence and subsequent symptoms of a concussion, even if the person reports only having their \u201cbell rung\u201d and is able to shake it off fairly quickly, given that when combined with factors such as genetics, the concussion may produce negative long-term health consequences,\u201d said Hayes.<\/p>\n

The researchers hope that others can build upon these findings to find the precise concussion-related mechanisms that accelerate the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Parkinson\u2019s and others. \u201cTreatments may then one day be developed to target those mechanisms and delay the onset of neurodegenerative pathology,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New findings that appear in the journal Brain, show promise for detecting the influence of concussion on neurodegeneration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42204"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42279,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42204\/revisions\/42279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}