β-amyloid wall deposit of temporal artery in subjects with spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage

Background: Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy has been indicated as an importantcause of spontaneous non-hypertensive intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH).Aims: to analyze the presence of β-amyloid deposit in the temporal artery ofconsecutive patients with ICH in comparison to control subjects and its relation toAPO-E haplotype frequency.Methods: We enrolled consecutive patients admitted to Neurosurgery Ward ofUniversity Hospital "P. Giaccone" of Palermo with a diagnosis of spontaneous nonhypertensive ICH and as control 12 subjects without brain haemorrhage. Biopsyof superficial temporal artery has been performed and β-amyloid deposit wasquantified.Results: Among 25 subjects with ICH, 10 (40%) had APOE epsilon 2 allele andamong these subjects 7 (70%) showed amyloid accumulation on temporal arteryspecimens, 8 (32%) subjects had APOE epsilon 3 allele and among these subjectsonly 2 (25%) showed amyloid accumulation on temporal artery specimens, whereas7 (28%) had APOE epsilon 4 allele and of these, 7 (100%) showed amyloidaccumulation on temporal artery specimens. At multivariable logistic regressionanalysis for the presence of amyloid, predictive factors for the presence of amyloidin temporal artery biopsies were: age, hypertension, intralobar site of haemorrhage,APOE epsilon 2 and APOE epsilon 4 alleles.Discussion: Our findings of a higher frequency of amyloid deposition in temporalartery specimens in subjects with spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage indicatea possible role of temporal artery as a possible diagnostic site of biopsy in subjectsat high risk to develop intracranial haemorrhage related to Cerebral AmyloidAngiopathy.