DELCODE
DZNE Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study
German multicentre memory-clinic cohort of about 1,000 people aged 60 and over with subjective cognitive decline, MCI or mild Alzheimer's dementia, first-degree relatives and controls, with yearly 3 T MRI, cognition, CSF and amyloid and FDG PET in a subset. Access by application to the DZNE.
Overview
DELCODE is a longitudinal observational study run by the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) at university memory clinics across Germany. It started in 2014 and focuses on subjective cognitive decline (SCD) as an early at-risk state for Alzheimer's disease, compared with mild cognitive impairment, mild Alzheimer's dementia, first-degree relatives of patients and cognitively normal controls. It is used to study early markers and predictors of cognitive decline.
Composition
The DZNE reports about 1,000 enrolled participants aged 60 or older, seen once a year. The design paper describes the first 394 baseline participants: 141 controls, 126 with SCD, 65 with amnestic MCI, 40 with mild Alzheimer's dementia and 22 first-degree relatives; 208 of them were women. Mean age by group ranged from 64.8 (relatives) to 72.8 years. Patients were referred by the memory clinics; controls and relatives were recruited through newspaper adverts. Clinical and neuropsychological testing, blood, urine and, in about half of the participants, cerebrospinal fluid come with the imaging.
Acquisition
MRI is acquired at nine sites, all with 3 T Siemens scanners (three TIM Trio, four Verio, one Skyra, one Prisma), under shared SOPs, a travelling-head qualification and weekly phantom checks. The standard protocol has a T1-weighted scan, resting-state fMRI, a coronal T2-weighted scan of the medial temporal lobe, task fMRI and a quantitative susceptibility-weighted image. One site acquires DTI instead of task fMRI, and three sites add a second scanning day with DTI, further task fMRI and a locus coeruleus sequence. A 1 mm isotropic FLAIR is also part of the protocol. A PET substudy in participants with SCD adds florbetaben amyloid PET and FDG PET, mostly on PET-CT; by the time of the design paper, 25 amyloid and 16 FDG scans had been acquired.
Annotations
No image labels are published. Every scan is checked centrally for protocol conformity and quality.
Known limitations
- The group breakdown, sex and age are only published for the first 394 participants. Numbers for the full cohort are not on the website.
- First-degree relatives have no matching condition term in this index and are not counted under any condition.
- Access goes through a DZNE committee review, and the data use agreement for external researchers is not published.
- The exact type of the susceptibility scan (SWI or a quantitative map) is not specified in the design paper.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 1,000 subjects.
Sex
- Female 208 100%
Covers 208 of 1,000 subjects.
PET tracer
studies
- [18F]florbetaben 25
- [18F]FDG 16
Condition
subjects, values can overlap
- Healthy control 141 14%
- Subjective cognitive decline 126 13%
- Mild cognitive impairment 65 7%
- Alzheimer's disease 40 4%
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
A research proposal is reviewed and approved
Regulations for use of Clinical Research databases, data and biomaterials of the DZNE
Data from DZNE clinical studies are released per project after a written application with an ethics vote is approved by the study steering committee or the DZNE Clinical Board. External researchers sign a data use agreement. Direct commercial use is excluded, publications go to the DZNE 30 days before submission and DZNE co-authorship is expected.
External researchers also sign a data use agreement with the DZNE. Its text is not published. The design paper states that the data are not publicly available but may be provided upon reasonable request.
What you can do
- Conditional
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Conditional
What you can share
- Not stated
- Share derived data Not stated
- Share trained models Not stated
What you must do
- Yes
- Share alike No
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Release code No
- No
- Not stated
Limits
- Not stated
- Conditional
Citation
Jessen F, Spottke A, Boecker H, et al. Design and first baseline data of the DZNE multicenter observational study on predementia Alzheimer's disease (DELCODE). Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 10:15 (2018). doi:10.1186/s13195-017-0314-2
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total the page says DELCODE included a total of 1,000 participants; the design paper gives 1000 as the enrolment target | 1,000 | dzne-delcode |
| Subjects | condition=healthy controls among the first 394 baseline participants | 141 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | condition=scd among the first 394 baseline participants | 126 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | condition=mci amnestic MCI among the first 394 baseline participants | 65 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | condition=alzheimers mild Alzheimer's dementia among the first 394 baseline participants | 40 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female sum of the five disjoint groups (83 + 65 + 25 + 23 + 12) among the first 394 baseline participants, including 12 of 22 first-degree relatives | 208 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female;condition=healthy among the first 394 baseline participants | 83 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female;condition=scd among the first 394 baseline participants | 65 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female;condition=mci among the first 394 baseline participants | 25 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female;condition=alzheimers among the first 394 baseline participants | 23 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Studies | tracer=florbetaben amyloid PET scans linked to the first 400 baseline datasets | 25 | jessen2018 Methods (PET) |
| Studies | tracer=fdg FDG PET scans linked to the first 400 baseline datasets | 16 | jessen2018 Methods (PET) |
| Mean age | condition=healthy first 394 baseline participants | 68.6 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Mean age | condition=scd first 394 baseline participants | 71.4 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Mean age | condition=mci first 394 baseline participants | 72.8 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
| Mean age | condition=alzheimers first 394 baseline participants | 72.8 | jessen2018 Table 1 |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- dzne-delcode DZNE website, DELCODE study page website
- jessen2018 Jessen F et al. 2018, Design and first baseline data of DELCODE, Alzheimer's Research & Therapy paper
- doerner2024 Dörner M et al. 2024, Inferior frontal sulcal hyperintensities in DELCODE, Diagnostics paper