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Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 10|pp 3156—3169

Age-related hearing loss accelerates cerebrospinal fluid tau levels and brain atrophy: a longitudinal study

Wei Xu1, Can Zhang2, Jie-Qiong Li3, Chen-Chen Tan3, Xi-Peng Cao4, Lan Tan3, Jin-Tai Yu5, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative6
  • 1Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, College of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
  • 2Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MIND), Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
  • 3Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
  • 4Clinical Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, China
  • 5Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  • 6Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database (adni.loni.usc.edu). As such, the investigators within the ADNI contributed to the design and implementation of ADNI and/or provided data but did not participate in analysis or writing of this report. A complete listing of ADNI investigators can be found at: http://adni.loni.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/how_to_apply/ADNI_Acknowledgement_List.pdf
Received: January 21, 2019Accepted: May 12, 2019Published: May 22, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101971

Copyright: Xu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) has been considered as a promising modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia. Nonetheless, it is still unclear whether age-related hearing loss associates with neurodegenerative biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Participants with ARHL were selected from the established Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. In multivariable models, the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of ARHL with CSF β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau measurements, brain Aβ load, and cortical structural measures were explored. ARHL was associated with higher CSF levels of tau (p < 0.001) or ptau181 (p < 0.05) at baseline as well as faster elevation rates of these two types of biomarkers (p < 0.05). Although the baseline volume/thickness of hippocampus (p < 0.05) and entorhinal cortex (p < 0.0005) were higher in individuals with ARHL, these two regions (p < 0.01 for hippocampus, p < 0.05 for entorhinal cortex) displayed significantly accelerated atrophy in individuals with ARHL. No association of ARHL with CSF or brain Aβ levels was found. Subgroup analyses indicated that the above effects of ARHL were more significant in non-demented stage. Age-related hearing loss was associated with elevated cerebrospinal fluid tau levels and atrophy of entorhinal cortex.