Vascular contribution to the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from the EPAD cohort

Evidence suggests that cardiovascular risk factors and cerebrovascular disease contribute to the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology. It is still unclear to what extent vascular and amyloid pathology have a synergistic or independent influence in preclinical AD stages. We used structural equation models in a cohort of cognitively unimpaired individuals to investigate if cerebrovascular pathology mediates the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and CSF Aβ1-42, and show that cerebrovascular pathology accelerates downstream AD markers (p-Tau181 and hippocampal volume) by increasing amyloid pathology.