Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Faculty

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School

School of Medical Sciences / Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care

RAS ID

18789

Comments

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of: Faux N.G., Rembach A., Wiley J., Ellis K.A., Ames D., Fowler C.J., Martins R.N., Pertile K.K., Rumble R.L., Trounson B., Masters C.L., & Bush A.I. (2014). An anemia of Alzheimer's disease. Molecular Psychiatry, 19(11), 1227-1234. Available here

Abstract

Lower hemoglobin is associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since brain iron homeostasis is perturbed in AD, we investigated whether this is peripherally reflected in the hematological and related blood chemistry values from the Australian Imaging Biomarker and Lifestyle (AIBL) study (a community-based, cross-sectional cohort comprising 768 healthy controls (HC), 133 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 211 participants with AD). We found that individuals with AD had significantly lower hemoglobin, mean cell hemoglobin concentrations, packed cell volume and higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (adjusted for age, gender, APOE-ε4 and site). In AD, plasma iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation and red cell folate levels exhibited a significant distortion of their customary relationship to hemoglobin levels. There was a strong association between anemia and AD (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=2.43, confidence interval (CI) (1.31, 4.54)). Moreover, AD emerged as a strong risk factor for anemia on step-down regression, even when controlling for all other available explanations for anemia (adjusted OR=3.41, 95% CI (1.68, 6.92)). These data indicated that AD is complicated by anemia, which may itself contribute to cognitive decline.

DOI

10.1038/mp.2013.178

Access Rights

free_to_read

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