scholarly journals Changes in the intracranial volume from early adulthood to the sixth decade of life: A longitudinal study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaron Caspi ◽  
Rachel M. Brouwer ◽  
Hugo G. Schnack ◽  
Marieke E. van de Nieuwenhuijzen ◽  
Wiepke Cahn ◽  
...  

AbstractNormal brain-aging occurs at all structural levels. Excessive pathophysiological changes in the brain, beyond the normal one, are implicated in the etiology of brain disorders such as severe forms of the schizophrenia spectrum and dementia. To account for brain-aging in health and disease, it is critical to study the age-dependent trajectories of brain biomarkers at various levels and among different age groups.The intracranial volume (ICV) is a key biological marker, and changes in the ICV during the lifespan can teach us about the biology of development, aging, and gene X environment interactions. However, whether ICV changes with age in adulthood is not resolved.Applying a semi-automatic in-house-built algorithm for ICV extraction on T1w MR brain scans in the Dutch longitudinal cohort (GROUP), we measured ICV changes. Individuals between the ages of 16 and 55 years were scanned up to three consecutive times with 3.32±0.32 years between consecutive scans (N=482, 359, 302). Using the extracted ICVs, we calculated ICV longitudinal aging-trajectories based on three analysis methods; direct calculation of ICV differences between the first and the last scan, fitting all ICV measurements of individuals to a straight line and applying a global linear mixed model fitting. We report statistically significant increases in the ICV in adulthood until the fourth decade of life (average change +0.03%/y, or about 0.5 ml/y, at age 20), and decreases in the ICV afterward (−0.09%/y, or about −1.2 ml/y, at age 55). To account for previous cross-sectional reports of ICV changes, we analyzed the same data using a cross-sectional approach. Our cross-sectional analysis detected ICV changes consistent with the previously reported cross-sectional effect. However, the reported amount of cross-sectional changes within this age range was significantly larger than the longitudinal changes. We attribute the cross-sectional results to a generational effect.In conclusion, the human intracranial volume does not stay constant during adulthood but instead shows a small increase during young adulthood and a decrease thereafter from the fourth decade of life. The age-related changes in the longitudinal setup are smaller than those reported using cross-sectional approaches and unlikely to affect structural brain imaging studies correcting for intracranial volume considerably. As to the possible mechanisms involved, this awaits further study, although thickening of the meninges and skull bones have been proposed, as well as a smaller amount of brain fluids addition above the overall loss of brain tissue.

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i12-i42
Author(s):  
M B Zazzara ◽  
P M Wells ◽  
R C E Bowyer ◽  
M N Lochlainn ◽  
E J Thompson ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the periodontium, ultimately leading to looseness and/or loss of teeth. Sarcopenia refers to age-related reduction in muscle mass and strength. Similar to periodontitis, chronic low-grade inflammation is thought to play a key role in its development. In addition, both increase in prevalence with advancing age. Despite known associations with other diseases involving a dysregulated inflammatory response, for example rheumatoid arthritis,, the relationship between periodontitis and sarcopenia, and whether they could be driven by similar processes, remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to explore the association between periodontitis and sarcopenia. Methods Observational study of 2040 adult volunteers [age 67.18 (12.17)] enrolled in the TwinsUK cohort study. Presence of tooth mobility and number of teeth lost were used to assess periodontal health. A binary variable was created to define periodontitis. Measurements of muscle strength, muscle quality/quantity and physical performance were used to assess sarcopenia. A categorical variable was created according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2) consensus, to define sarcopenia (1: probable; 2: positive; 3: severe). Generalised linear mixed model analysis used on complete cases and age-matched (n = 1,288) samples to ascertain associations between periodontitis and sarcopenia. Results No significant association was found between periodontitis and sarcopenia in both the complete cases analysis and age-matched analysis. Results were consistent when analysis was adjusted for potential confounders including body mass index, frailty index, Mini Mental State Examination smoking, nutritional status and educational level. Conclusions This study found no significant association between periodontitis and sarcopenia in a cohort of 2040 adults. Although both periodontitis and sarcopenia have been linked to a dysregulated immune response and demonstrate an increase in prevalence with increasing age, our work is inconclusive due to the plethora of possible aetiopathogenetic pathways.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 005-012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajith Kumar U ◽  
A.V. Sangamanatha

Background: Psychophysical evidence indicates age-related decline over a broad range of auditory abilities. Thus, age-related deterioration in temporal processing abilities also may be expected. At issue is whether the various dimensions of temporal processing decline at the same or at different rates across age. Purpose: To determine whether various temporal processes decline with aging and whether some are more resistant to the effects of aging than others. Study Sample: A total of 176 subjects in the age range from 20 to 85 yr participated in this research. Subjects were divided into six cross-sectional age groups. There were 30 subjects per age decade up to 70 yr and 26 subjects in the age group >70 yr. Data Collection and Analysis: Temporal processing was evaluated using gap detection, duration discrimination, modulation detection, and duration pattern. Results: Individuals in the 20–30 and 30–40 yr groups performed significantly better in all the psychoacoustic measures in comparison to other age groups. Deterioration in temporal processing began after the fourth decade of life. Deterioration accelerated after 70 yr of age. Conclusions: There is a systematic, age-related decline in temporal processing starting from the fourth decade of life. The deficits in temporal processing observed in the present study may be related in part to the difficulties that elderly persons encounter in noisy listening situations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yauhen Statsenko ◽  
Tetiana Habuza ◽  
Klaus Neidl-Van Gorkom ◽  
Nazar Zaki ◽  
Taleb M. Almansoori ◽  
...  

Background: Neuroscience lacks a reliable method of screening the early stages of dementia.Objective: To improve the diagnostics of age-related cognitive functions by developing insight into the proportionality of age-related changes in cognitive subdomains.Materials and Methods: We composed a battery of psychophysiological tests and collected an open-access psychophysiological outcomes of brain atrophy (POBA) dataset by testing individuals without dementia. To extend the utility of machine learning (ML) classification in cognitive studies, we proposed estimates of the disproportional changes in cognitive functions: an index of simple reaction time to decision-making time (ISD), ISD with the accuracy performance (ISDA), and an index of performance in simple and complex visual-motor reaction with account for accuracy (ISCA). Studying the distribution of the values of the indices over age allowed us to verify whether diverse cognitive functions decline equally throughout life or there is a divergence in age-related cognitive changes.Results: Unsupervised ML clustering shows that the optimal number of homogeneous age groups is four. The sample is segregated into the following age-groups: Adolescents ∈ [0, 20), Young adults ∈ [20, 40), Midlife adults ∈ [40, 60) and Older adults ≥60 year of age. For ISD, ISDA, and ISCA values, only the median of the Adolescents group is different from that of the other three age-groups sharing a similar distribution pattern (p > 0.01). After neurodevelopment and maturation, the indices preserve almost constant values with a slight trend toward functional decline. The reaction to a moving object (RMO) test results (RMO_mean) follow another tendency. The Midlife adults group's median significantly differs from the remaining three age subsamples (p < 0.01). No general trend in age-related changes of this dependent variable is observed. For all the data (ISD, ISDA, ISCA, and RMO_mean), Levene's test reveals no significant changes of the variances in age-groups (p > 0.05). Homoscedasticity also supports our assumption about a linear dependency between the observed features and age.Conclusion: In healthy brain aging, there are proportional age-related changes in the time estimates of information processing speed and inhibitory control in task switching. Future studies should test patients with dementia to determine whether the changes of the aforementioned indicators follow different patterns.


1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-77
Author(s):  
Rukshana Ahmed ◽  
Shamim Ara

Pathological changes in the prostate gland occur commonly with advancing age including inflammation, atrophy, hyperplasia and carcinoma and a change in volume is also evident. Estimation of volume of prostate may be useful in a variety of clinical settings. A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to see the changes in volume of the prostate with advancing age and done in the Department of Anatomy, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from August 2006 to June 2007. The study was performed on 70 post-mortem human prostates collected from the unclaimed dead bodies that were under examination in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka. The samples were divided into three age groups; group A (10-20 years), group B (21-40 years) and group C (41-70 years). Volume of the sample was measured by using the ellipsoid formula. The mean ± SD volume of prostate was 7.68 ± 3.64 cm3 in group A, 10.61 ± 3.99 cm3 in group B and 15.40 ± 6.31 cm3 in group C. Mean difference in volume between group A and group C, group B and group C were statistically significant (p<0.001). Statistically significant positive correlation was found between age and volume of prostate (r = + 0.579, p < 0.001). Key Words: Prostate; volume; Bangladeshi. DOI: 10.3329/imcj.v4i2.6501Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2010; 4(2): 74-77


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1611
Author(s):  
Nur Fathiah Abdul Abdul Sani ◽  
Ahmad Imran Zaydi Amir Amir Hamzah ◽  
Zulzikry Hafiz Abu Abu Bakar ◽  
Yasmin Anum Mohd Mohd Yusof ◽  
Suzana Makpol ◽  
...  

The mechanism of cognitive aging at the molecular level is complex and not well understood. Growing evidence suggests that cognitive differences might also be caused by ethnicity. Thus, this study aims to determine the gene expression changes associated with age-related cognitive decline among Malay adults in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 160 healthy Malay subjects, aged between 28 and 79, and recruited around Selangor and Klang Valley, Malaysia. Gene expression analysis was performed using a HumanHT-12v4.0 Expression BeadChip microarray kit. The top 20 differentially expressed genes at p < 0.05 and fold change (FC) = 1.2 showed that PAFAH1B3, HIST1H1E, KCNA3, TM7SF2, RGS1, and TGFBRAP1 were regulated with increased age. The gene set analysis suggests that the Malay adult’s susceptibility to developing age-related cognitive decline might be due to the changes in gene expression patterns associated with inflammation, signal transduction, and metabolic pathway in the genetic network. It may, perhaps, have important implications for finding a biomarker for cognitive decline and offer molecular targets to achieve successful aging, mainly in the Malay population in Malaysia.


Circulation ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 133 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitham Ahmed ◽  
Di Zhao ◽  
Eliseo Guallar ◽  
Michael J Blaha ◽  
Clinton A Brawner ◽  
...  

Background: The declines in peak heart rate (HR) and fitness level with age are related; however, whether this association differs based on gender is not well appreciated. In a large cross-sectional cohort of women and men referred for a clinically indicated exercise treadmill test (ETT), we set out to determine whether the decrease in peak HR by age varied by gender (and fitness) in the Henry Ford Exercise Testing (FIT) project. Methods: We analyzed data on 38,196 apparently-healthy patients aged 18-96 [mean age 51 ± 12 yrs, 25% black, 48% women] who completed an ETT. Those with history of coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes on medications, atrial fibrillation or flutter, or taking AV nodal blocking medications were excluded. Being “fit” was defined as achieving ≥ the median MET level for each sex/age-decile group. Peak HR vs age was plotted, and regression lines were used to determine the intercept and slope for each group. Results: Men had higher peak HR than women but with a greater decline over time; the respective intercepts and slopes for peak HR estimates were 202.9 and 0.90 for men and 197.3 and 0.80 for women, (p-interaction = 0.023). Fit people also started out with higher peak HR but approached unfit people at higher age groups; respective intercept and slope by fitness status were 203.0 and 0.87 for fit and 194.7 and 0.83 for unfit (p-interaction <0.001). Separate regression lines were generated for categories of fit men/unfit men, fit women/unfit women ( Figure ). Fit and unfit men had similar declines in peak HR with increasing age (slope=0.92); whereas fit women (slope=0.81) had a slightly greater decline in peak HR with increasing age than unfit women (slope=0.73). However, peak absolute HR for fit people still remains higher than for unfit people even into elderly ages. Conclusion: In this cross-sectional cohort of patients referred for a clinical ETT, we found that the age-related decline in peak HR is influenced by both gender and fitness status.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Sin-Chan ◽  
Nehal Gosalia ◽  
Chuan Gao ◽  
Cristopher V. Van Hout ◽  
Bin Ye ◽  
...  

SUMMARYAging is characterized by degeneration in cellular and organismal functions leading to increased disease susceptibility and death. Although our understanding of aging biology in model systems has increased dramatically, large-scale sequencing studies to understand human aging are now just beginning. We applied exome sequencing and association analyses (ExWAS) to identify age-related variants on 58,470 participants of the DiscovEHR cohort. Linear Mixed Model regression analyses of age at last encounter revealed variants in genes known to be linked with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, which are associated with myelodysplastic syndromes, as top signals in our analysis, suggestive of age-related somatic mutation accumulation in hematopoietic cells despite patients lacking clinical diagnoses. In addition to APOE, we identified rare DISP2 rs183775254 (p = 7.40×10−10) and ZYG11A rs74227999 (p = 2.50×10−08) variants that were negatively associated with age in either both sexes combined and females, respectively, which were replicated with directional consistency in two independent cohorts. Epigenetic mapping showed these variants are located within cell-type-specific enhancers, suggestive of important transcriptional regulatory functions. To discover variants associated with extreme age, we performed exome-sequencing on persons of Ashkenazi Jewish descent ascertained for extensive lifespans. Case-Control analyses in 525 Ashkenazi Jews cases (Males ≥ 92 years, Females ≥ 95years) were compared to 482 controls. Our results showed variants in APOE (rs429358, rs6857), and TMTC2 (rs7976168) passed Bonferroni-adjusted p-value, as well as several nominally-associated population-specific variants. Collectively, our Age-ExWAS, the largest performed to date, confirmed and identified previously unreported candidate variants associated with human age.


F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 303
Author(s):  
Vong Pisey ◽  
Pannee Banchonhattakit

Background: Diarrhea is still the leading cause of childhood death worldwide, as well as a major cause for concern in developing countries. This study was conducted to investigate the factors related to childhood diarrhea in Cambodia. Methods: A cross-sectional study of the secondary data from the Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey 2014 was conducted using the combination of household data and children’s data. A generalized linear mixed model was used to analyze the determinant factors of childhood diarrhea. Results: The surveys included 2,828 children, aged 12 to 35 months. The prevalence of diarrhea in the last 2 weeks was 16.44% (95% CI: 14.72%-18.31%). Factors with statistically significant associations with childhood diarrhea in Cambodia were: maternal  unemployment, compared with being in employment (AOR = 1.43; 95% CI: 1.14-1.78); the child being male (AOR = 1.25; 95%CI: 1.02-1.53); the presence of unimproved toilet facilities (AOR = 1.17; 95%CI: 1.05-1.31) compared with improved toilet facilities; and unhygienic disposal of children’s stools (AOR = 1.32; 95%CI: 1.06-1.64) compared with hygienic disposal of children’s stools when controlling for other covariates. Both maternal age (one year older; AOR = 0.85; 95%CI: 0.78– 0.93) and child age (one month older; AOR = 0.86; 95%CI: 0.78-0.94) had significant negative associations with the occurrence of childhood diarrhea. Conclusion: Childhood diarrhea remains a public health concern in Cambodia. The probability of diarrhea occurring is shown to be increased by maternal unemployment, the sex of the child being male, lack of provision of improved toilet facilities, and the unhygienic disposal of children’s stools; whereas increasing maternal age and child’s age were associated with a reduced chance of diarrhea occurring. On the basis of these results, we recommend provision of programs focusing on reducing diarrhea through the construction of improved toilet facilities and the promotion of behavior to improve hygiene, specifically targeting younger mothers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (05) ◽  
pp. 471-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreedevi Aithal ◽  
Joseph Kei ◽  
Carlie Driscoll

Background: Wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) studies on infants have shown changes in WAI measures with age. These changes are attributed, at least in part, to developmental effects. However, developmental effects in young infants (0–6 mo) on WAI have not been systematically investigated. Purpose: The objective of this study was to compare wideband absorbance (WBA) in healthy neonates and infants aged 1, 2, 4, and 6 mo. Research Design: This was a prospective cross-sectional study. All participants were assessed by using 1-kHz tympanometry, distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests, and WBA tests. Study Sample: Participants included 35 newborns (35 ears), 16 infants aged 1 mo (29 ears), 16 infants aged 2 mo (29 ears), 15 infants aged 4 mo (28 ears), and 14 infants aged 6 mo (27 ears). For each participant, the ears that passed both high-frequency (1-kHz) tympanometry and DPOAE tests were included for analysis. Data Collection and Analysis: WBA was recorded at ambient pressure conditions, and the response consisted of 16 data points at 1/3-octave frequencies from 0.25 to 8 kHz. A mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to the data in each age group to evaluate the effects of sex, ear, and frequency on WBA. WBA was compared between various age groups. In addition, a separate mixed-model ANOVA was applied to WBA data, and post hoc analyses with the Bonferroni correction were performed at each of the 16 data points at 1/3-octave frequencies across age groups to examine the effect of age on WBA. Results: For all age groups, WBA was highest between 1.5 and 5 kHz and lowest at frequencies of less than 1.5 kHz and greater than 5 kHz. A developmental trend was evident, with both the 0- and 6-mo-old infants being significantly different from other age groups at most frequencies. The WBA results exhibited a multipeaked pattern for infants aged 0 to 2 mo, whereas a single broad peaked pattern for 4- and 6-mo-old infants was observed. The difference in WBA between 0- and 6-mo-old infants was statistically significant across most frequencies. In contrast, the WBA results for 1- and 2-mo-old infants were comparable. There were no significant sex or ear effects on WBA for all age groups. Conclusions: Developmental effects of WBA were evident for infants during the first 6 mo of life. The WBA data can be used as a reference for detecting disorders in the sound-conductive pathways (outer and middle ear) in young infants. Further development of age-specific normative WBA data in young infants is warranted.


Author(s):  
Mònica González-Carrasco ◽  
Marc Sáez ◽  
Ferran Casas

This article aims to redress the lack of longitudinal studies on adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) and highlight the relevance of knowledge deriving from such research in designing public policies for improving their health and wellbeing in accordance with the stage of development they are in. To achieve this, the evolution of SWB during early adolescence (in adolescents aged between 10 and 14 in the first data collection) was explored over a five year period, considering boys and girls together and separately. This involved comparing different SWB scales and contrasting results when considering the year of data collection versus the cohort (year of birth) participants belonged to. The methodology comprised a generalized linear mixed model using the INLA (Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation) estimation within a Bayesian framework. Results support the existence of a decreasing-with-age trend, which has been previously intuited in cross-sectional studies and observed in only a few longitudinal studies and contrasts with the increasing-with-age tendency observed in late adolescence. This decrease is also found to be more pronounced for girls, with relevant differences found between instruments. The decreasing-with-age trend observed when the year of data collection is taken into account is also observed when considering the cohort, but the latter provides additional information. The results obtained suggest that there is a need to continue studying the evolution of SWB in early adolescence with samples from other cultures; this, in turn, will make it possible to establish the extent to which the observed decreasing-with-age trend among early adolescents is influenced by cultural factors.


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