Overview: Previous traumatic brain injury increased the risk of frontotemporal dementia in those without genetic risk factors for FTD. Additionally, researchers found that people with FTD tended to be less educated than those with Alzheimer’s disease.
sauce: University of Eastern Finland
Two recent studies from the University of Eastern Finland show that educational attainment and previous traumatic brain injury can influence the risk of frontotemporal dementia.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most common causes of dementia in people of working age. FTD spectrum disorders have profound effects on behavior, language function, and cognitive processing, depending on the subtype.
Many genetic mutations have been implicated as contributing to these diseases, but their non-genetic preventable risk factors remain unknown and poorly studied.
According to a recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, patients with frontotemporal dementia were, on average, less educated than those with Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, the FTD patient without the disease-causing gene mutation was less educated and had a higher prevalence of heart disease compared with her FTD patients with the mutation.
The researchers utilized extensive data from over 1,000 patients, including those from Finland and Italy, representing all the most common subtypes of FTD.
In addition to FTD and Alzheimer’s disease patients, the study included a control group without a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease.Results were reported in A Chronicle of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
Based on this study, patients with different subtypes of the FTD spectrum and those with hereditary and non-hereditary disorders appear to differ in several risk factors.
A second study showed that previous traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of FTD, especially in patients without the underlying genetic mutation. Moreover, patients with head trauma appeared to develop FTD earlier than others, on average.
Researchers compared Finnish FTD patients with Alzheimer’s disease patients and healthy controls. The survey results are Alzheimer’s Journal.
“These results provide a better understanding of disease mechanisms and, perhaps in the future, an opportunity to prevent frontotemporal dementia,” said postdoctoral fellow and lead author of both articles. Helmi Soppela of the University of Eastern Finland,
About this frontotemporal dementia research news
author: press office
sauce: University of Eastern Finland
contact: Press Office – University of Eastern Finland
image: image is public domain
Original research: closed access.
“Traumatic brain injury is associated with early onset of sporadic frontotemporal dementiaHelmi Soppera and others Alzheimer’s Journal
open access.
“Modifiable Potential Risk Factors in Familial and Sporadic Frontotemporal DementiaHelmi Soppera and others A Chronicle of Clinical and Translational Neurology
Overview
Traumatic brain injury is associated with early onset of sporadic frontotemporal dementia
Background: Few studies currently consider possible modifiable risk factors for frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Objective: In this retrospective case-control study, we evaluated whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with her diagnosis of FTD and modulates the clinical phenotype or age of onset in FTD patients.
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Method: We compared the prevalence of previous TBI between FTD patients (N = 218) and age- and sex-matched AD patients (N = 214) or healthy controls (HC; N = 100). Based on patient records, individuals were classified into the TBI+ group if they were reported to have suffered TBI during their lifetime. A possible association between TBI and age of onset and disease duration was also evaluated across the FTD patient group or separately in the sporadic and genetic FTD groups.
result: The prevalence of previous TBI was highest in the FTD group (19.3%) compared to the AD group (13.1%, p = 0.050) or the HC group (12%, p = 0.108, not significant). Prior TBI was associated more often with sporadic FTD cases than with FTD cases with C9orf72 repeat expansion (p = 0.003). Furthermore, a comparison of the TBI+ and TBI− FTD groups showed that previous TBI was associated with early onset age in his FTD patients (B = 3.066, p = 0.010).
Conclusion: Antecedent TBI is particularly associated with sporadic FTD and early onset of symptoms. The results of this study suggest that TBI may trigger the neurodegenerative process in his FTD. However, more research is needed to understand the exact underlying mechanisms.
Overview
Modifiable Potential Risk Factors in Familial and Sporadic Frontotemporal Dementia
Purpose
Few studies have evaluated modifiable risk factors for frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Here, we evaluated several modifiable factors and their association with disease phenotype, genotype, and prognosis in a large study population, including his FTD patients and controls in Finland and Italy. .
method
This case-control study compared the presence of several cardiovascular and other lifestyle diseases and the education of Finnish and Italian familial disease patients (n= 376) and sporadic (n= 654) between FTD, different phenotypes of FTD, and between subgroups of Finnish FTD patients (n= 221) and Finnish patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n= 214) and cognitively healthy controls (HC) (n= 100).
result
Patients with sporadic FTD were uneducated (p= 0.042, B = -0.560, 95% CI -1.101 to -0.019), had more heart disease (p< 0.001, OR = 2.265, 95% CI 1.502–3.417) compared with patients with familial FTD. Her FTD patient in Finland was uneducated (p= 0.032, B = 0.755, 95% CI 0.064–1.466) compared with AD patients. His FTD group in Finland showed a lower prevalence of hypertension than the HC group (p= 0.003, OR = 2.162, 95% CI 1.304–3.583), with a lower prevalence of hypercholesterolemia than the HC group (p< 0.001, OR = 2.648, 95%CI 1.548–4.531) or AD group (p< 0.001, OR = 1.995, 95% CI 1.333–2.986). Within the FTD group, clinical phenotypes also differed regarding educational and lifestyle-related factors.
interpretation
Our study suggests a distinct profile of several modifiable factors in the FTD group, depending on phenotype and family genetic history, with sporadic FTD in particular associated with modifiable risk factors. There is a possibility that
