Multimodal EEG, MRI and PET data fusion for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.

Alarmingly increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) due to the aging population in developing countries, combined with lack of standardized and conclusive diagnostic procedures, make early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease a major public health concern. While no current medical treatment exists to stop or reverse this disease, recent dementia specific pharmacological advances can slow its progression, making early diagnosis all the more important. Several noninvasive biomarkers have been proposed, including P300 based EEG analysis, MRI volumetric analysis, PET based metabolic activity analysis, as alternatives to neuropsychological evaluation, the current gold standard of diagnosis.

Pathological 43-kDa transactivation response DNA-binding protein in older adults with and without severe mental illness.

Background: Major psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and mood disorders have not been linked to a specific pathology, but their clinical features overlap with some aspects of the behavioral variant of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Although the significance of pathological 43-kDa (transactivation response) DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) for frontotemporal lobar degeneration was appreciated only recently, the prevalence of TDP-43 pathology in patients with severe mental illness vs controls has not been systematically addressed.

Objective: To examine patients with chronic psychiatric diseases, mainly schizophrenia, for evidence of neurodegenerative TDP-43 pathology in comparison with controls.

Clinical and pathological continuum of multisystem TDP-43 proteinopathies.

Objective: To determine the extent of transactivation response DNA-binding protein with a molecular weight of 43 kDa (TDP-43) pathology in the central nervous system of patients with clinically and autopsy-confirmed diagnoses of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with and without motor neuron disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with and without cognitive impairment.

Design: Performance of immunohistochemical whole-central nervous system scans for evidence of pathological TDP-43 and retrospective clinical medical record review.

Setting: An academic medical center.

Multiple SNPs within and surrounding the apolipoprotein E gene influence cerebrospinal fluid apolipoprotein E protein levels.

The epsilon4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) is associated with increased risk and earlier age at onset in late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Other factors, such as expression level of apolipoprotein E protein (apoE), have been postulated to modify the APOE related risk of developing AD. Multiple loci in and outside of APOE are associated with a high risk of AD.

Variations in the progranulin gene affect global gene expression in frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive decline in behavior, executive function and sometimes language. Disease mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recently, however, the DNA- and RNA-binding protein TDP-43 has been identified as the major protein present in the hallmark inclusion bodies of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions (FTLD-U), suggesting a role for transcriptional dysregulation in FTLD-U pathophysiology.

Spatial patterns of brain atrophy in MCI patients, identified via high-dimensional pattern classification, predict subsequent cognitive decline.

Spatial patterns of brain atrophy in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) were measured via methods of computational neuroanatomy. These patterns were spatially complex and involved many brain regions. In addition to the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe gray matter, a number of other regions displayed significant atrophy, including orbitofrontal and medial-prefrontal grey matter, cingulate (mainly posterior), insula, uncus, and temporal lobe white matter.

Environmental and plant community determinants of species loss following nitrogen enrichment.

Global energy use and food production have increased nitrogen inputs to ecosystems worldwide, impacting plant community diversity, composition, and function. Previous studies show considerable variation across terrestrial herbaceous ecosystems in the magnitude of species loss following nitrogen (N) enrichment. What controls this variation remains unknown.

Age and apolipoprotein E*4 allele effects on cerebrospinal fluid beta-amyloid 42 in adults with normal cognition.

Background: Decreased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) beta-amyloid 42 (A beta 42) concentration, but not A beta 40 concentration, is a biomarker for Alzheimer disease. This A beta 42 concentration decrease in CSF likely reflects precipitation of A beta 42 in amyloid plaques in brain parenchyma. This pathogenic plaque deposition begins years before the clinical expression of dementia in Alzheimer disease.

How should clinicians discuss hospice for patients with dementia? Anticipating caregivers' preconceptions and meeting their information needs.

This study was designed to determine whether Alzheimer disease (AD) caregivers view the benefits of hospice as more relevant to themselves or to patients, to identify the features of hospice care that are most important to caregivers, and to determine how often these features are described in hospice promotional materials. Telephone interviews were conducted with AD caregivers from a Memory Disorders Clinic of an urban academic medical center (N = 45). A nationwide mail survey of randomly selected hospices was also conducted (N = 66).