Traumatic brain injury preceding clinically diagnosed α-synucleinopathies
A case-control study
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Abstract
Objective To determine the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and any clinically diagnosed α-synucleinopathy including Parkinson disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), PD dementia (PDD), and multiple system atrophy (MSA).
Methods Using the medical records-linkage system of the Rochester Epidemiology Project, we identified incident cases of α-synucleinopathies in Olmsted County, Minnesota, from 1991 to 2010, matching by age (±1 year) at symptom onset and sex to controls. We reviewed records of cases and controls to detect TBI prior to clinical-motor onset of any α-synucleinopathies. We based severity (possible, probable, and definite) upon the Mayo Classification System for TBI Severity. Using conditional-logistic regression, we calculated the odds ratio (OR) of all α-synucleinopathies and type, adjusting for coffee intake and smoking.
Results TBI frequency was lower among cases (7.0%) than controls (8.2%). No association was found between TBI and all α-synucleinopathies in multivariable analyses (OR 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54–1.52). No association presented when examining the number of TBIs, TBI severity, time between TBI exposure and index date, age at index date, or sex. When stratifying by each individual α-synucleinopathy, we did not identify any associations between TBI and PD, DLB, or PDD. Among the MSA group, 1 (6.4%) and 0 controls experienced a TBI (OR could not be estimated).
Conclusions In this nested case-control population-based analysis, TBI was not associated with subsequent α-synucleinopathies in general or any individual α-synucleinopathy. This did not change based on the temporality or the severity of the TBI. Our findings may be limited by the study power.
Glossary
- CDC=
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- DLB=
- dementia with Lewy bodies;
- H-ICDA=
- Hospital Adaptation of the International Classification of Diseases, Eighth Revision;
- ICD-9=
- International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision;
- IQR=
- interquartile range;
- MSA=
- multiple system atrophy;
- OR=
- odds ratio;
- PD=
- Parkinson disease;
- PDD=
- Parkinson disease dementia;
- REP=
- Rochester Epidemiology Project;
- TBI=
- traumatic brain injury
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Editorial, page 335
- Received March 22, 2019.
- Accepted in final form September 1, 2019.
- © 2020 American Academy of Neurology
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Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Reader response: Traumatic brain injury preceding clinically diagnosed α-synucleinopathies: A case-control study
- Tomoyuki Kawada, Professor, Nippon Medical School
Submitted April 12, 2020
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