AUTHOR=Ikanga Jean , Patrick Sarah D. , Schwinne Megan , Patel Saranya Sundaram , Epenge Emmanuel , Gikelekele Guy , Tshengele Nathan , Kavugho Immaculee , Mampunza Samuel , Yarasheski Kevin E. , Teunissen Charlotte E. , Stringer Anthony , Levey Allan , Rojas Julio C. , Chan Brandon , Lario Lago Argentina , Kramer Joel H. , Boxer Adam L. , Jeromin Andreas , Alonso Alvaro , Spencer Robert J. 

TITLE=Sensitivity of the African neuropsychology battery memory subtests and learning slopes in discriminating APOE 4 and amyloid pathology in adult individuals in the Democratic Republic of Congo

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1320727

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2024.1320727

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=The current study examined the sensitivity of two memory subtests and their corresponding learning slope metrics derived from the African Neuropsychology Battery (ANB) to detect amyloid pathology and APOE4 status in adults from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Methods: 85 participants were classified for the presence of β-amyloid pathology and based on allelic presence of APOE4 using Simoa. All participants were screened using CSID and AQ, underwent verbal and visuospatial memory testing from ANB, and provided blood samples for plasma A42, A40, and APOE proteotype. Pearson correlation, linear and logistic regression were conducted to compare amyloid pathology and APOE4 status with derived learning scores, including initial learning, raw learning score, learning over trials, and learning ratio.Results: Our sample included 35 amyloid positive and 44 amyloid negative individuals as well as 42 without and 39 with APOE4. All ROC AUC ranges for the prediction of amyloid pathology based on learning scores were low, ranging between 0.56-0.70 (95% CI ranging from 0.44-0.82). The sensitivity of all the scores ranged between 54.3-88.6, with some learning metrics demonstrating good sensitivity. Regarding APOE4 prediction, all AUC values ranged between 0.60-0.69, with all sensitivity measures ranging between 53.8-89.7. There were minimal differences in the AUC values across learning slope metrics, largely due to the lack of ceiling effects in this sample.Discussion: This study demonstrates that some ANB memory subtests and learning slope metrics can discriminate those that are normal from those with amyloid pathology and those with and without APOE4, consistent with findings reported in Western populations.