Validation of Spatial Orientation Screening questionnaire for use in memory clinic patients.

Background: Spatial orientation is required for independent mobility in society. Deficits in spatial orientation can be an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and there is a need for brief assessment tools to identify impairments.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the construct and known-group validity of our newly developed Spatial Orientation Screening (SOS) questionnaire.

Sex-specific associations of kynurenic acid with neopterin in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Sex differences in neuroinflammation could contribute to women's increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), providing rationale for exploring sex-specific AD biomarkers. In AD, dysregulation of the kynurenine pathway (KP) contributes to neuroinflammation and there is some evidence of sex differences in KP metabolism. However, the sex-specific associations between KP metabolism and biomarkers of AD and neuroinflammation need to be explored further.

Regional MRI volumetry using NeuroQuant versus visual rating scales in patients with cognitive impairment and dementia.

Background And Purpose: The aims were to compare the novel regional brain volumetric measures derived by the automatic software NeuroQuant (NQ) with clinically used visual rating scales of medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA), global cortical atrophy-frontal (GCA-f), and posterior atrophy (PA) brain regions, assessing their diagnostic validity, and to explore if combining automatic and visual methods would increase diagnostic prediction accuracy.

Methods: Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations from 86 patients with subjective and mild cognitive impairment (i.e.

Neopterin, kynurenine metabolites, and indexes related to vitamin B6 are associated with post-stroke cognitive impairment: The Nor-COAST study.

Background And Aims: We have previously shown that systemic inflammation was associated with post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). Because neopterin, kynurenine pathway (KP) metabolites, and B6 vitamers are linked to inflammation, in our study we investigated whether those biomarkers were associated with PSCI.

Material And Methods: The Norwegian Cognitive Impairment After Stroke study is a prospective multicenter cohort study of patients with acute stroke recruited from May 2015 through March 2017.

Diagnostic accuracy of brain age prediction in a memory clinic population and comparison with clinically available volumetric measures.

The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic validity of a deep learning-based method estimating brain age based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to compare it with volumetrics obtained using NeuroQuant (NQ) in a clinical cohort. Brain age prediction was performed on minimally processed MRI data using deep convolutional neural networks and an independent training set. The brain age gap (difference between chronological and biological age) was calculated, and volumetrics were performed in 110 patients with dementia (Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and dementia with Lewy bodies), and 122 with non-dementia (subjective and mild cognitive impairment).

The ANeED study - ambroxol in new and early dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB): protocol for a phase IIa multicentre, randomised, double-blinded and placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Currently, there are no disease-modifying pharmacological treatment options for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). The hallmark of DLB is pathological alpha-synuclein (aS) deposition. There are growing amounts of data suggesting that reduced aS clearance is caused by failure in endolysosomal and authophagic pathways, as well as and glucocerebrosidase (GCase) dysfunction and mutations in the GCase gene (GBA).

Higher concentrations of kynurenic acid in CSF are associated with the slower clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: The kynurenine pathway's (KP) malfunction is closely related to Alzheimer's disease (AD), for antagonistic kynurenic acid (KA) and agonistic quinolinic acid act on the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, a possible therapeutic target in treating AD.

Methods: In our longitudinal case-control study, KP metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid were analyzed in 311 patients with AD and 105 cognitively unimpaired controls.

Results: Patients with AD exhibited higher concentrations of KA (β = 0.

Sex-specific associations of matrix metalloproteinases in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be characterised in vivo by biomarkers reflecting amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathology. However, there is a need for biomarkers reflecting additional pathological pathways. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have recently been highlighted as candidate biomarkers for sex-specific mechanisms and progression in AD.

Plasma Inflammatory Biomarkers Are Associated With Poststroke Cognitive Impairment: The Nor-COAST Study.

Background: Inflammation is proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of poststroke cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between concentrations of systemic inflammatory biomarkers after ischemic stroke and poststroke cognitive impairment.

Methods: The Nor-COAST study (Norwegian Cognitive Impairment After Stroke) is a prospective observational multicenter cohort study, including patients hospitalized with acute stroke between 2015 and 2017.

Mobility and associations with levels of cerebrospinal fluid amyloid β and tau in a memory clinic cohort.

Background: Mobility impairments, in terms of gait and balance, are common in persons with dementia. To explore this relationship further, we examined the associations between mobility and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) core biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we included 64 participants [two with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 13 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 49 with dementia] from a memory clinic.

Cohort profile: the Norwegian Registry of Persons Assessed for Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog) - a national research and quality registry with a biomaterial collection.

Purpose: The Norwegian Registry of Persons Assessed for Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog) was established to harmonise and improve the quality of diagnostic practice across clinics assessing persons with cognitive symptoms in Norwegian specialist healthcare units and to establish a large research cohort with extensive clinical data.

Participants: The registry recruits patients who are referred for assessment of cognitive symptoms and suspected dementia at outpatient clinics in Norwegian specialist healthcare units. In total, 18 120 patients have been included in NorCog during the period of 2009-2021.

Cerebrospinal fluid quinolinic acid is strongly associated with delirium and mortality in hip-fracture patients.

BACKGROUNDThe kynurenine pathway (KP) has been identified as a potential mediator linking acute illness to cognitive dysfunction by generating neuroactive metabolites in response to inflammation. Delirium (acute confusion) is a common complication of acute illness and is associated with increased risk of dementia and mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying delirium, particularly in relation to the KP, remain elusive.

Associations Between Intrathecal Levels of Vitamin D, Cytokines, and Core Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Several studies have examined association between vitamin D levels in serum and cognition, but little is known of vitamin D levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and association with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objective: In this cross-sectional, explorative study we investigated possible associations of vitamin D in CSF with biomarkers for AD, amyloid-β, tau protein/phosphorylated tau protein in CSF, and with the cytokines IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α in CSF in patients with cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy controls.

Methods: We included 100 outpatients ≥65 years referred for assessment of cognitive impairment and 76 age- and sex-matched cognitively healthy controls.

Cerebrospinal fluid catecholamines in Alzheimer's disease patients with and without biological disease.

Noradrenergic and dopaminergic neurons are involved in cognitive functions, relate to behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia and are affected in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amyloid plaques (A), neurofibrillary tangles (T) and neurodegeneration (N) hallmarks the AD neuropathology. Today, the AT(N) pathophysiology can be assessed through biomarkers.

Hippocampal Atrophy Subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease Using Automatic MRI in a Memory Clinic Cohort: Clinical Implications.

Introduction: One pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is atrophy of medial temporal brain regions that can be visualized on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but not all patients will have atrophy. The aim was to use MRI to categorize patients according to their hippocampal atrophy status and to present prevalence of the subtypes, difference in clinical symptomatology and progression, and factors associated with hippocampal subtypes.

Methods: We included 215 patients with AD who had been assessed with the clinically available MRI software NeuroQuant (NQ; CorTechs labs/University of California, San Diego, CA, USA).

Serum Amyloidogenic Nanoplaques and Cytokines in Alzheimer's Disease: Pilot Study in a Small Naturalistic Memory Clinic Cohort.

Background: Neuroinflammation is a central component of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and correlates closely with amyloid pathology. Markers of inflammation such as cytokines, and amyloidogenic aggregates, so-called nanoplaques, are both promising biomarker candidates for AD. We have previously shown that there is a relationship between the levels of nanoplaques and cytokines in cerebrospinal fluid, but it is unknown whether this association extends to serum.

Vitamin D in Alzheimer's Disease: Low Levels in Cerebrospinal Fluid Despite Normal Amounts in Serum.

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency has been suggested as a dementia risk factor.

Objective: In this cross-sectional, explorative study we investigated whether levels of vitamin D in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are lower in patients with positive biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to cognitively healthy controls and whether polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene, FokI, BsmI, ApaI, and TaqI, are associated with levels of vitamin D in CSF and cognition.

Methods: We included 100 patients≥65 years assessed for cognitive impairment and 76 cognitively healthy controls.

Evaluation of semi-quantitative measures of F-flutemetamol PET for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Background: F-flutemetamol positron emission tomography (PET) is used to assess cortical amyloid-β burden in patients with cognitive impairment to support a clinical diagnosis. Visual classification is the most widely used method in clinical practice although semi-quantification is beneficial to obtain an objective and continuous measure of the Aβ burden. The aims were: first to evaluate the correspondence between standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) from three different software, Centiloids and visual classification, second to estimate thresholds for supporting visual classification and last to assess differences in semi-quantitative measures between clinical diagnoses.

Neopterin and kynurenic acid as predictors of stroke recurrence and mortality: a multicentre prospective cohort study on biomarkers of inflammation measured three months after ischemic stroke.

Background: Chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with both ischemic stroke and sedentary behaviour. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive abilities of biomarkers of inflammation and immune modulation associated with sedentary behaviour for ischemic stroke recurrence and mortality in a stroke population.

Methods: Patients admitted to hospital for acute stroke were recruited to the prospective multicentre cohort study, the Norwegian Cognitive Impairment After Stroke (Nor-COAST) study, from May 2015 until March 2017.

Is Amyloid Burden Measured by 18F-Flutemetamol PET Associated with Progression in Clinical Alzheimer's Disease?

Background: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show heterogeneity in clinical progression rate, and we have limited tools to predict prognosis. Amyloid burden from 18F-Flutemetamol positron emission tomography (PET), as measured by standardized uptake value ratios (SUVR), might provide prognostic information.

Objective: We investigate whether 18F-Flutemetamol PET composite or regional SUVRs are associated with trajectories of clinical progression.

The Impact of Vascular Risk Factors on Post-stroke Cognitive Impairment: The Nor-COAST Study.

Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is common, but evidence on the impact of vascular risk factors is lacking. We explored the association between pre-stroke vascular risk factors and PSCI and studied the course of PSCI. Vascular risk factors were collected at baseline in stroke survivors ( = 635).

Investigating novel biomarkers of immune activation and modulation in the context of sedentary behaviour: a multicentre prospective ischemic stroke cohort study.

Background: Sedentary behaviour is associated with disease, but the molecular mechanisms are not understood. Valid biomarkers with predictive and explanatory properties are required. Therefore, we have investigated traditional and novel biomarkers of inflammation and immune modulation and their association to objectively measured sedentary behaviour in an ischemic stroke population.

Pre-stroke cognitive impairment is associated with vascular imaging pathology: a prospective observational study.

Background: Chronic brain pathology and pre-stroke cognitive impairment (PCI) is predictive of post-stroke dementia. The aim of the current study was to measure pre-stroke neurodegenerative and vascular disease burden found on brain MRI and to assess the association between pre-stroke imaging pathology and PCI, whilst also looking for potential sex differences.

Methods: This prospective brain MRI cohort is part of the multicentre Norwegian cognitive impairment after stroke (Nor-COAST) study.