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Abstract #4249

Are Behavioural Symptoms of AlzheimerS Disease Directly Associated to Neurodegeneration?

Laura Serra1, Roberta Perri2, Mara Cercignani1, Barbara Span1,3, Lucia Fadda2,4, Camillo Marra5, Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo2,4, Carlo Caltagirone2,4, Marco Bozzali1

1Neuroimaging laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy; 2Department of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy; 3Direzione Scientifica, , IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino-Pulejo, Messina, Italy; 4Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy; 5Institute of Neurology, Universit Cattolica, Roma, Italy


Psychiatric symptoms (BPSD) are frequently observed in the clinical course of Alzheimers disease (AD). We used voxel-based morphometry to identify, in a large cohort patients with AD at different clinical stages, which BPSD are more significantly associated with regional gray matter degeneration. Correlation analyses showed an association between disinhibition and GM volumes in the cingulate gyrus bilaterally, and in the right middle frontal gyrus, and between delusions and GM volume of the right hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, and of the right middle frontal gyrus. These findings indicate that BPSD are likely part of the clinical features of AD.

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