Page 80 - Annual Report 2018

Throughout 2015 all Neuroradiology reports from allows us to look for the parameters associated with
every subject and each of the visits from the 'Valle- those abilities that are maintained over time in some
cas Project' have been incorporated in the single individuals. These are the so-called "Superagers",
project database. Text reports have been encoded, whose definition according to researchers at the
incorporating each item to the database, as well as Northwestern University in Chicago includes people
attaching the report of each visit in pdf format, en- over 80 years of age and with an episodic memory
abling viewing and downloading to all researchers equal to or greater than of healthy people 50 to 60
who have access to the database. years old. In June 2018, Marta Garo Pascual, student
of the Neurosciences master's degree at UAM, as
On the other hand, we have organized MRI data co- part of her final master's work has identified a sample
rresponding to the 'Vallecas Project' and Queen of “Superagers” in visit 2 of the Vallecas Project. Du-
Sofia Foundation Alzheimer Center subjects, con- ring her study, she made a structural analysis of the
verting the data obtained directly from MRI equip- MT images from these subjects, as well as the analy-
ment into the appropriate format for analysis. sis of some demographic factors that could be as-
A collaborative project with CESVIMA (Supercom- sociated with this condition of "super aging."
puting and Visualization Center of Madrid), a center
from the UPM (Technical University of Madrid) has 4.3.8. Current status
also been established.
The Vallecas Project is the main research project
As a result, a VBM analysis of T1 sequences from visits conducted at CIEN Foundation, both in terms of re-
1 and 2 of the subjects 'Vallecas Project' has been sources and social impact. In late 2013, the project
performed. The results of this analysis form the basis completed the recruitment phase and the baseline
of a new project awarded to Dr. Bryan Strange by first visits of volunteers. During 2018, parts of the fifth,
the Alzheimer's Association ("The healthy elderly sixth and seventh follow-up visits of the project vo-
brain: MRI predictors for developing MCI"), which has lunteers have been done simultaneously.
allowed the hiring of a new team member, Dr. Linda
Zhang. Dr. Zhang, expert in analysis of structural MR Percentage of visits in the Vallecas project during
images, has examined the white matter in visit 1 of the year 2018
the subjects of the Vallecas Project.

In 2018, Dr. Zhang received the Queen Sofia Foun- VALLECAS PROJECT
dation-MAPFRE Scholarship. The objective of his ACTIVITIES DURING 2018
scholarship has been the extension of the analysis of
the T1 sequences of all the visits of the Vallecas Pro-
ject. This step has allowed us to verify, with an inde-
pendent sample, an algorithm that predicts MCI in Number of fifth visit assessments 47
healthy people developed from the data of visits 1 Number of sixth visit assessments
196
and 2. With the same purpose, additional analyses
Number of seventh visit assessments
181
have also been carried out on the Alzheimer's Dise-
Number of eighth visit assessments 1
ase Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) public database.
The Vallecas Project not only allows us to investigate
risk factors for the loss of cognitive abilities, but also

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