Regional distribution of amyloid deposition and grey matter atrophy in late‐life depression

Background Depression is associated with a risk of developing dementia and is hypothesized to enhance (pathological) brain aging. Previously we reported that amyloid burden in late‐life depression (LLD) did not differ from healthy controls in cortical regions typically associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1]. Here we extend our analysis beyond hippocampal volume and AD‐specific volumes‐of‐interest, to the whole brain. Method Forty‐eight individuals with LLD (age 74.1±7.5 years, 33 female) and 52 healthy controls (72.4±6.4 years, 37 female) underwent static amyloid PET imaging with [18]F‐flutemetamol and 3D T1‐weighted structural MRI. Amyloid deposition was quantified using the standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) relative to the cerebellar grey matter (GM). Whole‐brain voxel‐wise comparisons of amyloid PET SUVR and GM volume (GMV) between LLD and controls were performed using SPM12, with age as covariate. Total intracranial volume was included as an additional covariate in the GMV analysis. The significance threshold was set to a family‐wise error (FWE) corrected p