Reality orientation therapy to delay outcomes of progression in patients with dementia. A retrospective study.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of continued Reality Orientation Therapy (ROT) in delaying the outcomes of dementia progression.

Design: Retrospective study. Data collection was based on review of clinical charts and on telephone interviews performed with patients or primary caregivers.

Detection of the presenilin 1 COOH-terminal fragment in the extracellular compartment: a release enhanced by apoptosis.

Mutations in gene encoding presenilin 1 (PS1) are responsible for the majority of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) cases. We studied PS1 localization in HEK293 cells and in primary neurons obtained from rat cortex and hippocampus. We first demonstrated that PS1-CTF, but neither PS1-FL nor PS1-NTF, is released into the medium as a soluble and membrane-associated form.

The management of adverse clinical events in nursing homes: a 1-year survey study.

Objective: In Italian nursing homes (NHs), care delivery at night and during holidays is not regulated by regional laws; some facilities employ staff physicians, others employ physicians engaged from year to year (temporary physicians), and others employ publicly funded National Health System (NHS) physicians. This study was designed to determine whether the use of different kinds of physicians leads to different outcomes with regard to the rate of hospitalization and appropriateness of the management of adverse clinical events.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized-survey data collection.

Treatment of Alzheimer's disease with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors: bridging the gap between evidence and practice.

Views on drug therapy with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors of the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are not uniform, varying from excitement at the possibility of significantly improving the personal and social burden of the disease to skeptical and nihilistic attitudes. Clinical practice from generous prescription to evidence-based guidelines and advising much stricter rules, mirror these attitudes. The epidemiological and clinical relevance of the issue requires understanding of the factors responsible for such discrepancies.

Analysis of alpha-2-macroglobulin-2 allele as a risk factor in Alzheimer's disease.

A correlation between a 5-nucleotide deletion polymorphism in the A2M gene and an enhanced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) was reported. We studied this polymorphism in sporadic AD patients and patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) by using an electrophoretical separation of PCR products on a Metaphor gel. Our results did not show any significant difference between A2M-2 allelic frequency (p = 0.

Mild cognitive impairment: clinical features and review of screening instruments.

Clinical criteria to recognize subjects with cognitive impairment in the pre-dementia stage are becoming available. These are frail subjects, at risk of adverse outcomes, such as death, institutionalization, and functional and cognitive deterioration. Early identification of these subjects has a great importance in order to start rehabilitative or pharmacological interventions that could slow the progression of cognitive impairment, and the onset of disability.

[Music therapy in Alzheimer's disease: is an evidence-based approach possible?].

The application of music therapy to Alzheimer's patients is relatively recent. The studies available in literature show that music therapy has a positive effect either on mood or cognition. However, the generalization of data is difficult because these researches have lacked methodological design rigour.

The Itel-MMSE: an Italian telephone version of the Mini-Mental State Examination.

Method: We compared performance in an Italian telephone version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (Itel-MMSE) with performance in the standard MMSE administered face to face to 104 inpatients affected by cognitive deficit.

Results: Their cognitive ability varied from mildly to severely impaired. Total scores of the two MMSE versions correlated strongly for all patients (r=0.

Longevity and the epsilon2 allele of apolipoprotein E: the Finnish Centenarians Study.

Background: Whether and which genetic factors affect human longevity is unclear. This study assesses the association between the epsilon2 allele of apolipoprotein E (APOE), a putative longevity gene, and extremely old age.

Methods: This study is based on all centenarians living in Finland in 1991.

Temporal lobe asymmetry in patients with Alzheimer's disease with delusions.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that delusions are associated with asymmetric involvement of the temporal lobe regions in Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: Temporal lobe atrophy was assessed with a linear measure of width of the temporal horn (WTH) taken from CT films. Temporal asymmetry was computed as the right/left (R/L) ratio of the WTH in 22 non-delusional and 19 delusional patients with Alzheimer's disease.

How does the apolipoprotein E genotype modulate the brain in aging and in Alzheimer's disease? A review of neuroimaging studies.

The epsilon 4 allele of apolipoprotein E is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, but also a modulator of its clinical picture. In this paper, recent research in neuroimaging of aging and Alzheimer's disease in relation to apolipoprotein E is reviewed, emphasizing the advances but also the controversies. Further, the possible clinicopathological implications of these findings are discussed.

Hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a morphometric MRI study.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of hippocampal atrophy is a sensitive but not specific method to support the clinical diagnosis of early Alzheimer's disease (AD). We recently described our findings that atrophy of the entorhinal cortex (ERC) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is equal to that found in AD but that hippocampal atrophy in FTD is less than that found in AD. The MRI volumes of these structures provide a topographic representation of the region of interest.

Mild cognitive impairment in the population and physical health: data on 1,435 individuals aged 75 to 95.

Background: The physical health correlates of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the older individual are poorly known. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical health and MCI with population data.

Methods: Subjects were 1,435 nondemented 75- to 95-year-old subjects.