Findings based on analysis of MRI and PET scans suggest recurring falls could point to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease in older adults, reports Neurology Today

Falls in cognitively normal older adults could potentially serve as a behavioral marker of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), researchers suggested in a paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The findings were based on a cross-sectional analysis of structural and functional MRI and PET measures of amyloid uptake, brain volumetrics, and global resting state-functional connectivity (rs-fc) intra-network signature on MRI in cognitively normal adults who kept a calendar of falls over a one-year period. (The global rs-fc intra-network signature measures connectivity between brain networks when subjects are in a resting state.) The researchers compared imaging data with similar measures from preclinical AD participants who had not recorded falls.

Within two years of falls, the participants underwent structural functional MRI and amyloid PET. Using standard cutoffs, cognitively normal participants were dichotomized by amyloid PET status.

Read more in Neurology Today