Association between neuropathology and brain volume in the Framingham Heart Study.

Studies of clinical and community cohorts have shown that antemortem imaging measures of hippocampal volume have correlated with postmortem Alzheimer pathology. Fewer studies have examined the relationship between both Alzheimer and cerebrovascular pathology, and antemortem brain imaging. The aim of this study was to correlate antemortem brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumes with postmortem brain pathology (both Alzheimer-related and cerebrovascular) in a community-derived cohort from the Framingham Heart Study.

Interrater reliability of the new criteria for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Objective: To evaluate the interrater reliability of the new International Behavioural Variant FTD Criteria Consortium (FTDC) criteria for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Methods: Twenty standardized clinical case modules were developed for patients with a range of neurodegenerative diagnoses, including bvFTD, primary progressive aphasia (nonfluent, semantic, and logopenic variant), Alzheimer disease, and Lewy body dementia. Eighteen blinded raters reviewed the modules and 1) rated the presence or absence of core diagnostic features for the FTDC criteria, and 2) provided an overall diagnostic rating.

Extrapyramidal signs by dementia severity in Alzheimer disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Alzheimer disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are common etiologies of dementia with overlapping clinical features. Our objective was to determine which extrapyramidal signs (EPSs) are most helpful in identifying DLB. We analyzed data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, including demographics, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, and clinical diagnosis.

Cytokines disrupt intracellular patterns of Parkinson's disease-associated proteins alpha-synuclein, tau and ubiquitin in cultured glial cells.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of specific proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (Il-6), interleukin-1beta (Il-1beta), interferon-gamma (IFN), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), on content and distribution of alpha-synuclein (alpha-synuclein), tau and ubiquitin in human derived cultured glial cells. Exposure paradigms mimicked acute (2 h), intermediate (18 h) and prolonged time frames (96 h); consisting of single or repeated low doses (10 ng/ml) or high doses (50 ng/ml), consistent with either mild or serious systemic infectious/inflammatory responses. Images of intracellular protein content and distribution were reconstructed from emission patterns generated by fluorescence deconvolution microscopy.