Ventricular volume expansion in presymptomatic genetic frontotemporal dementia
Publication: Neurology
Tamara P. Tavares, Derek G.V. Mitchell, Kristy Coleman, Christen Shoesmith, Robert Bartha, David M. Cash, Katrina M. Moore, John van Swieten, Barbara Borroni, Daniela Galimberti, Maria Carmela Tartaglia, James Rowe, Caroline Graff, Fabrizio Tagliavini, Giovanni Frisoni, Stefano Cappa, Robert Laforce, Alexandre de Mendonça, Sandro Sorbi, Garrick Wallstrom, Mario Masellis, Jonathan D. Rohrer, Elizabeth C. Finger
29 October 2019
The objective of this research was to characterize the time course of ventricular volume expansion in genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and identify the onset time and rates of ventricular expansion in presymptomatic FTD mutation carriers. Participants included patients with a mutation in MAPT, PGRN, or C9orf72, or first-degree relatives of mutation carriers from the GENFI study with MRI scans at study baseline and at 1 year follow-up. The researchers aimed to identify identify differences in ventricular volume and in expansion rates as a function of time to expected disease onset between presymptomatic carriers and noncarriers.
Ventricular volume differences were observed 4 years prior to symptom disease onset for presymptomatic carriers compared to noncarriers. Annualized rates of ventricular volume expansion were greater in presymptomatic carriers relative to noncarriers. Importantly, time-intensive manually edited and fully automated ventricular volume resulted in similar findings.
Ventricular volume differences are detectable in presymptomatic genetic FTD. Concordance of results from time-intensive manual editing and fully automatic segmentation approaches support its value as a measure of disease onset and progression in future studies in both presymptomatic and symptomatic genetic FTD.
