Cognitive Decline Associated With High Plasma Levels of Beta-Amyloid

CHICAGO (Aug. 9, 2010) —High plasma levels of beta-amyloid—protein fragments associated with Alzheimer's disease when they accumulate in the brain—appear to be associated with faster cognitive decline even in those who do not develop dementia, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the December 2010 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Stephanie A. Cosentino, Ph.D., of Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York, was first author of the paper. Richard Mayeux, M.D., professor of neurology, psychiatry, and epidemiology, and co-director of the Taub Institute of Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at CUMC, was senior author. Click here to read the press release from the Archives of Neurology.