• James C Jackson, Hillary J Warrington, Robert Kessler, Amy L Kiehl, and Wesley E Ely.
• Division of Allergy/Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; Center for Health Services Research, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, United States; VA Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Nashville, TN, United States. Electronic address: james.c.jackson@vanderbilt.edu.
• J Crit Care. 2018 Apr 1; 44: 331-336.

PurposeCognitive impairment resembling Alzheimer's disease is common in survivors of critical illness. We hypothesized that Intensive Care Unit (ICU) survivors with cognitive impairment would have significant amyloid and designed a pilot study to explore this relationship.Materials And MethodsA pilot, case series of a convenience sample of 14 adult medical and surgical ICU survivors, in a clinical neuroradiology clinic. Patients underwent cognitive testing at 3months, 1year, 4years, and 6years after hospital discharge with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. They received a single PET scan using amyloid PET imaging (florbetapir F18) 2 to 4years after their ICU stay.ResultsAmyloid (defined as a Standard Uptake Value ratio or SUVr >1.10) was present in 2 of 14 (14%) individuals, both of whom demonstrated significant cognitive impairment yet no consistent decline over time. Of the 6 impaired patients (RBANS<78), 4 (66.7%) were amyloid negative.ConclusionsIt is feasible to assess ICU survivors with amyloid imaging. In this small sample, most patients with cognitive impairment were negative on amyloid PET imaging, which raises the possibility that ICU survivors may experience a unique form of dementia not driven by an amyloid related mechanism.Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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