Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., has identified more than 70 medical conditions that consistently preceded Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses using EHR data from two large patient databases.
Researchers analyzed longitudinal EHRs from the MarketScan database of more than 150 million individuals and Vanderbilt’s own system, which includes about 3 million patients, according to a Feb. 24 news release. The study, published Dec. 29 in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, included more than 44,000 Alzheimer’s cases and more than 430,000 matched controls across both datasets.
Conditions more frequently observed in patients who later developed Alzheimer’s included depression, insomnia, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and cerebral atherosclerosis. The study also found an inverse association between cancer and Alzheimer’s, replicating previous findings.
The team validated many of the observed patterns using genetic data from two large-scale biobanks and identified 19 conditions associated with Alzheimer’s-related genetic risk. Researchers said the findings could guide earlier interventions and prevention-focused research.
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