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ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the association of depression with cardiovascular risk factors and diseases (CVRFD) in a large population-based sample. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1012 deceased individuals greater than 50 years of age from a general autopsy service located in São Paulo, Brazil. Demographics, socioeconomic profile, and CVRFD information were collected by caregivers from the deceased individuals from the Brain Bank of the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group. Depression diagnosed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Mental Disorders was the main outcome. RESULTS: Depression was associated with female gender (odds ratio (OR) = 1.86; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.28-2.71, p = 0.001), widowhood (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.03-2.32, p = 0.04), physical inactivity (OR = 1.61; 95% CI = 1.15-2.26, p = 0.006), and smoking (OR = 2.03; 95% CI = 1.40-2.95, p < 0.001) after multivariate logistic regression analysis. Other CVRFD were not associated with the presence of depression. CONCLUSIONS: In our cross-sectional study, sedentary individuals and smokers showed a higher chance of depression during lifetime. Measures to control these common risk factors could decrease the incidence of depression. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 06/2012; · 2.42 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Previous ultrasound-based studies have shown an association between carotid artery atherosclerosis and dementia. Our aim was to investigate this association using postmortem examination.
Postmortem morphometric measurements of carotid stenosis and intima-media thickness were performed in individuals with dementia (n=112) and control subjects (n=577). Multivariate logistic regression models were applied.
High-grade left internal carotid stenosis (≥70%) was associated with increased odds for dementia (OR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.14-4.74; P=0.02). Intima-media thickness was not associated with dementia.
The likelihood of dementia is increased with high-grade left internal carotid artery atherosclerosis after adjusting for demographic and cardiovascular risk factors.
Stroke 09/2011; 42(12):3614-5. · 5.73 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The human brain is often considered to be the most cognitively capable among mammalian brains and to be much larger than expected for a mammal of our body size. Although the number of neurons is generally assumed to be a determinant of computational power, and despite the widespread quotes that the human brain contains 100 billion neurons and ten times more glial cells, the absolute number of neurons and glial cells in the human brain remains unknown. Here we determine these numbers by using the isotropic fractionator and compare them with the expected values for a human-sized primate. We find that the adult male human brain contains on average 86.1 +/- 8.1 billion NeuN-positive cells ("neurons") and 84.6 +/- 9.8 billion NeuN-negative ("nonneuronal") cells. With only 19% of all neurons located in the cerebral cortex, greater cortical size (representing 82% of total brain mass) in humans compared with other primates does not reflect an increased relative number of cortical neurons. The ratios between glial cells and neurons in the human brain structures are similar to those found in other primates, and their numbers of cells match those expected for a primate of human proportions. These findings challenge the common view that humans stand out from other primates in their brain composition and indicate that, with regard to numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells, the human brain is an isometrically scaled-up primate brain.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology 05/2009; 513(5):532-41. · 3.81 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible disease. There is strong evidence that the progression of the phospho-tau neurofibrillary cytoskeletal changes, rather than the beta-amyloid burden, is crucial in determining the severity of the dementia in AD. The Braak and Braak staging system (BB) focuses mainly on the cortical cytoskeletal pathology and classifies this progressive pathology into six stages, spreading from the transentorhinal region to primary cortices. Although it is reported elsewhere that the midbrain's dorsal raphe nucleus (DR), which is connected with those areas of the cerebral cortex undergoing early changes during BB I and II, exhibits AD-related cytoskeletal pathology, this nucleus has not been considered by the BB.
To determine during which BB stage and how frequently the DR is affected by AD-related neurofibrillary changes, we studied the DR of 118 well-characterized individuals of the Brain Bank of the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group categorized according to the BB. Thirty-eight of these individuals were staged as BB = 0, and 80 as BB >or= 1.
In all of the BB >or= 1 individuals (cortical neurofibrillary changes were present at least in the transentorhinal region) and in more than 1/5 of the BB = 0 individuals neurofibrillary changes were detected in the supratrochlear subnucleus of the DR.
These observations: (i) support the hypothesis of transneuronal spread of neurofibrillary changes from the DR to its interconnected cortical brain areas; and (ii) indicate that the supratrochlear subnucleus of the DR is affected by neurofibrillary changes before the transentorhinal cortex during the disease process underlying AD.
Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology 10/2008; 35(4):406-16. · 3.80 Impact Factor
