Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2013
Patterns of brain atrophy in clinical variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
The clinical syndromes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration include behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and semantic (SV-PPA) and nonfluent variants (NF-PPA) of primary progressive aphasia. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tensor-based morphometry (TBM) was used to determine distinct patterns of atrophy between these three clinical groups. ⋯ The bvFTD, SV-PPA, and NF-PPA groups displayed distinct patterns of progressive atrophy over a 1-year period that correspond well to the behavioral disturbances characteristic of the clinical syndromes. More specifically, the bvFTD group showed significant white matter contraction and presence of behavioral symptoms at baseline predicted significant volume loss of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2013
Comparative StudyCognitive assessment in proximity to acute ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack: comparison of the montreal cognitive assessment test and mindstreams computerized cognitive assessment battery.
Even mild stroke survivors may sometimes experience residual cognitive damage. No consensus has emerged about which cognitive test is most appropriate for the diagnosis of poststroke cognitive impairment. We aim to compare a computerized battery of neuropsychological tests for memory, attention and executive functions (MindStreams®) with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to detect mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments in poststroke patients. ⋯ Our results demonstrate that either of the modalities alone is sensitive enough for identifying subtle cognitive impairment and none picks up substantially more cognitive losses than the other in patients with cerebrovascular disease.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2013
Apathy is associated with activities of daily living ability in Parkinson's disease.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms and impairment in performing activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are strong predictors of the overall caregiver burden and they increase the risk for nursing home admission of the patients. The purpose of the present study was to assess the association of neuropsychiatric symptoms and ADL functions in PD. ⋯ Apathy was significantly associated with ADL in PD. The result indicates that more attention should be paid to identifying apathy and targeting therapeutic interventions.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2013
The sensitivity and specificity of subjective memory complaints and the subjective memory rating scale, deterioration cognitive observee, mini-mental state examination, six-item screener and clock drawing test in dementia screening.
The effectiveness of dementia screening depends on the availability of suitable screening tools with good sensitivity and specificity to confidently distinguish normal age-related cognitive decline from dementia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity of 7 screening measures for dementia. ⋯ The SMCC is composed of valid screening questions that have high sensitivity, are simple to administer and ideal for administration at the community or primary health care level as a first level of 'rule-out' screening. The MMSE can be included at a second stage of screening at the general hospital level and the CDT in specialist clinical settings. Sequential use of the SMCC and MMSE will improve the specificity of the former and the sensitivity of the latter.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2013
Multicenter StudySingle-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment identified by cluster analysis predicts Alzheimer's disease in the european prospective DESCRIPA study.
To identify prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects using a data-driven approach to determine cognitive profiles in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). ⋯ In subjects with mild MCI, the single-domain amnestic MCI profile was associated with the highest risk of conversion, even if memory impairment did not necessarily cross specific cut-off points. A cognitive profile characterized by isolated memory deficits may be sufficient to warrant applying prevention strategies in MCI, whether or not memory performance lies below specific z-scores. This is supported by our preliminary biomarker analyses. However, further analyses with bigger samples are needed to corroborate these findings.