Family Med Medical News about Lewy Body Accumulation;lifetime cigarette smoking

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Association between lifetime cigarette smoking and Lewy body accumulation
Brain Pathology, 06/29/09

Tsuang D et al. – Findings are the first to associate reduced Lewy-related pathology (LRP) in human brain with any exposure and substantiate observational studies linking cigarette smoking with reduced risk of Parkinson's disease (PD). Although cigarette smoking is too toxic to suggest as a treatment, if confirmed, these findings may guide future therapeutic strategies that attempt to suppress LRP in human brain by other means.

Methods

Study of whether lifetime cigarette use may be associated with reduced risk of neuropathologic changes of LRP in multiple brain regions or with reduced risk of consensus neuropathologic changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD)
Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study: prospective community-based study of brain aging and dementia

Results

Heavy lifetime cigarette smoking (>50 pack yrs) associated with significantly reduced relative risk (RR) for LRP, but not AD-type pathologic changes, after correcting for selection bias
Association also noted with significantly reduced frequency of LRP in substantia nigra

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