Objective: Epidemiological studies demonstrated that estrogen replacement therapy may delay onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Moreover, in a recent study, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) estradiol (E2) levels were found to be significantly lower in female AD patients than in a non-demented control group (Schönknecht et al., 2001).
Design: Therefore, brain glucose metabolism was investigated with respect to CSF E2 levels in a sample of female AD paients.
Materials and Methods: FDG positron emission tomography was performed to evaluate cerebral glucose metabolism in six female AD patients. CSF E2 levels were determined using an electro-chemiluminescence-immunoassay on the Roche Elecsys 2010 immunoassay analyzer. Basic image processing was done by MedX, using SPM routines for spatial normalization and statistics.
Results: In the AD patients, CSF E2 levels were significantly (p<0.05) correlated with cerebral glucose metabolism in the left hippocampus.
Conclusion: This is the first study demonstrating an association of CSF E2 levels and cerebral glucose metabolism in brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of the disease. This finding corresponds to the results from recent epidemiological studies demonstrating a delay of onset of AD in patients receiving estrogen replacement therapy.
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