The Role of Amyloid PET in Diagnosing Possible Transmissible Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy in Young Adults with a History of Neurosurgery: A Case Series

BACKGROUND: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a common cause of cerebrovascular disease in the elderly. There is accumulating evidence suggestive of transmissibility of β-amyloid resulting in amyloid pathology at younger age. According to the Boston criteria, defining CAA in patients <55 years requires histological evidence which may hamper diagnosis. We explored the role of amyloid PET in the diagnosis of possible transmissible CAA in young adults. CASES: We report 4 young adults (<55 years) presenting with clinical and neuroimaging features suggestive of CAA but without genetic evidence of hereditary CAA explaining the young onset. A common factor in all cases was a medical history of neurosurgery during childhood. All patients underwent amyloid PET to support the diagnosis of an amyloid-related pathology and the result was positive in all 4. CONCLUSION: Combining the clinical presentation and imaging findings of the 4 cases, we postulate transmissible CAA as the possible diagnosis. Further epidemiological studies are required to gain more insight in the prevalence of this novel entity. Amyloid PET may be a useful, non-invasive tool in these analyses especially since pathological evidence will be lacking in most of these studies.