Common Polygenic Basis of Brain Morphology and Neurodegenerative Disorders from
  
   Lead Investigator:    Chi-Hua Chen
   Institution      :    University of California San Diego
   E-Mail           :    chc101@ucsd.edu
   Proposal ID      :    496



   Proposal Description:
   Recent molecular evidence suggests that neurodegenerative diseases exhibit prion-like propagation through the brain. However, the temporal evolution of various neurodegenerative diseases has not been examined in humans using longitudinal structural MRI. Furthermore, the relationship between neuropathology and longitudinal brain atrophy is also unknown. In this proposal, we would like to evaluate the temporal evolution of brain atrophy patterns across a number of neurodegenerative diseases and assess whether brain atrophy associates with neuropathology markers. We hypothesize that each neurodegenerative disorder will exhibit a distinct pattern of in vivo neurodegeneration and that the pattern of longitudinal volume loss will significantly correlate with distinct neuropathological markers.    To evaluate these findings, we would like to request:    1)   All available structural MRI data (baseline + all follow-up) on all available datasets within the NACC  2)   Demographic and patient variables for all patients with available MRI scans: age of baseline examination, age of disease onset, sex, clinical diagnosis, ADAS-Cog (baseline and all available follow-up), MMSE (baseline and all available follow-up), CDR-Sum of Boxes (baseline and all available follow-up), all CSF variables (if available), APOE genotype, number of APOE e4 alleles and whether or not subject is known to be in ADNI study  3)   Neuropathology variables:  All available neuropathology variables and all available sections (from Data Dictionary)