Markers of Alzheimers Disease After Propofol or Isoflurane Anesthesia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Previous work in animal models suggests that inhalational anesthetic agents may accelerate
Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis, but it is unclear to what extent this may happen in humans.
Here, the investigators propose to measure Alzheimer's disease-related neural markers in the
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients exposed to anesthesia while undergoing neurosurgical
procedures that require lumbar drain placement. Patients will be randomized to either receive
inhalation anesthesia with isoflurane or intravenous anesthesia with propofol.
CSF and blood samples will each be collected at the induction of anesthesia, and then again
ten and twenty-four hours later. CSF samples will be assayed for amyloid beta, tau, and other
Alzheimer's disease-associated markers; blood samples will be assayed for serum inflammatory
markers and used for genotyping studies. These studies should clarify the effect of common
anesthetic agents on Alzheimer's disease related neural markers.