The aging process and more importantly disease processes may manifest themselves as changes in the size and structure of the brain. The use of MRI scans in large epidemiologic studies of aging and dementia show promise in exploring risk factors for clinical and sub-clinical pathology ranging from silent stroke to Alzheimer's Disease. The acquisition of MRI scans in the HAAS during the fifth HHP examination provides a unique opportunity to investigate the association of vascular, non-vascular and genetic risk factors to cerebral structures based on standardized volumetric readings. The HAAS has extensive clinical and behavioral data collected up to 30 years prior to the scans, making it a unique research program designed to better understand the etiology and prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases in elderly Japanese-American men. During the fifth examination of about 3,000 HHP cohort survivors who also were participating in the HAAS, approximately 600 MRI scans were acquired on a stratified probability sample of the cohort between 1994 and 1996. A greater probability for selection into the MRI sample was given to persons with a dementia diagnosis, a history of a stroke, and an Apolipoprotein E4 allele. The SABER Study will specifically describe the brain in terms of:1. Quantification of global brain volumes, specifically white matter (WM), gray matter (GM) and cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) volumes;2. Quantification of regional brain volumes in Talairach space, specifically volumes for WM, GM and CSF within the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes of each hemisphere;3. Quantification of hippocampus volumes based on contoured regions of interest.
