ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2018
Does taking statins affect the pathological burden in autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer's dementia?
Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- APOE genotype and the effect of statins on lipid outcomes: A meta-analysis.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- The Spectrum of Alzheimer-Type Pathology in Cognitively Normal Individuals.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Article
- Statins and cognition: Modifying factors and possible underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Review
- Depression as a Risk Factor for Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.Biomedicines · 2020Article
- Leverage Real-world Longitudinal Data in Large Clinical Research Networks for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD).AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2020Article
- Statins and Cognitive Impairment: Not a Culprit, Protective in Some?Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2019Article
- The role of APOE4 in Alzheimer's disease: strategies for future therapeutic interventions.Neuronal signaling · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe efficacy of cholesterol lowering agents, specifically statins, in slowing the rate of decline of cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients is not yet fully understood. Our team's previously published paper showed that patients who used statins demonstrated no increase in cognitive decline in mild cognitive impairment when compared with nonusers. Further, AD patients on statins demonstrated a slight decreasing trend in cognitive decline. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the association between stain use in AD confirmed by clinical diagnosis and autopsy and the pathological burden (plaques, tangles, Braak stage). The hypothesis leading this investigation is that prolonged statin use associates with lower AD pathology at autopsy.
methodsWe queried the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database for autopsy-confirmed AD cases. Of the Uniform Data Set (UDS) participants who are deceased, 16,163 were diagnosed with dementia at their last UDS visit prior to death, and autopsy data are available for 3945 patients. These patients were then stratified into two groups based upon statin use. The two groups were then analyzed for their pathological AD burden, including total plaques, total tangles, age at death, age of onset, and Braak stage.
resultsNACC data were available for 1816 subjects with clinically and pathologically confirmed AD; 1558 were not on statins and 258 were on statins. No significant differences in age at death, age at onset, Braak stages, mean total tau, and mean total amyloid were found between the two subject groups. When statin use was analyzed by apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype carrier statins, the presence of ApoE4 did not influence the effects (or lack thereof) of statin use.
conclusionsProlonged statin use in pathologically confirmed AD dementia does not appear to influence the amount of burden of plaques and tangles or Braak stage. These observations were not altered by the presence of absence of ApoE4.
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