Distinguishing Alzheimer's Disease Patients and Biochemical Phenotype Analysis Using a Novel Serum Profiling Platform: Potential Involvement of the VWF/ADAMTS13 Axis.

It is important to develop minimally invasive biomarker platforms to help in the identification and monitoring of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Assisting in the understanding of biochemical mechanisms as well as identifying potential novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets would be an added benefit of such platforms. This study utilizes a simplified and novel serum profiling platform, using mass spectrometry (MS), to help distinguish AD patient groups (mild and moderate) and controls, as well as to aid in understanding of biochemical phenotypes and possible disease development.

Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease: Risk Factors, Their Interactions, and Associated Nonmotor Symptoms.

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a debilitating and incompletely understood symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objective: To determine the principal clinical factors predisposing to FOG in PD, their interactions, and associated nonmotor symptoms.

Methods: 164 PD subjects were assessed in a cross-sectional retrospective study, using the MDS-UPDRS scale, MMSE, and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale.

Pharmacological Management of Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a complex disease that involves a variety of cognitive, behavioral and neurological symptoms, including progressive memory loss, visual hallucinations, parkinsonism, cognitive fluctuations and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). These symptoms may appear in varying combinations and levels of severity in each patient who is seen in the clinic, making diagnosis and treatment a challenge. DLB is the third most common of all the neurodegenerative diseases behind both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (PD).

Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Cerebral Oxygenation During Sleep in Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

The current study examined relationships between laterality in cerebral oxygenation (L-COX), sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), and daytime function in 16 adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). All participants underwent two nights of diagnostic polysomnography. Using dual-cerebral oximetry, L-COX was defined by differences ≥4% in right- versus left-sided percent cerebral oxyhemoglobin saturation.

Importance of Balance-Gait Disorder as a Risk Factor for Cognitive Impairment, Dementia and Related Non-Motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: In Parkinson's disease (PD), postural instability-gait disorder (PIGD) has been associated with more rapid cognitive decline, dementia, and greater non-motor symptom (NMS) burden.

Objective: To assess the importance of balance-gait disorder, relative to and in combination with other clinical measures, as a risk factor for cognitive impairment, dementia and NMS burden in PD.

Methods: 164 PD subjects were evaluated in a retrospective cross-sectional study using the MDS-UPDRS scale, MMSE and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale.

Memory loss: Five new things.

Purpose Of Review: Memory loss can be due to a wide variety of causes. We provide new information about the biology of common genetic and acquired causes of memory loss in older adults.

Recent Findings: New data are available about the genetics of Alzheimer disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and frontotemporal dementia.

Instrumental activities of daily living performance and role satisfaction in people with and without mild cognitive impairment: a pilot project.

Objective: We investigated differences in observed performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and self-reported satisfaction with social role performance between people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) and age- and gender-matched control participants.

Method: We measured observed performance of 14 IADLs using the Independence, Safety, and Adequacy domains of the Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills (PASS) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information Systems (PROMIS) to examine satisfaction with social role performance.

Results: Total PASS scores were significantly lower in participants with a-MCI (median=40.

Comment: Performance improvement with computer training in Parkinson disease.

Computer-based memory and attention training methods improve episodic recall in older adults who have amnestic mild cognitive impairment.(1,2) Memory and attention are highly interactive and interdependent processes due to their shared circuitry. The cognitive benefits of computer-based memory training appear to persist for at least 6 months.

A program to improve detection of undiagnosed dementia in primary care and its association with healthcare utilization.

Objective: Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are common and costly, with increased healthcare utilization for patients with these disorders. The current study describes a novel dementia detection program for veterans and examines whether program-eligible patients have higher healthcare utilization than age-matched comparison patients.

Design: Using a telephone-based case-finding approach, the detection program used risk factors available in the electronic medical record (EMR) and telephone-based brief cognitive screening.

Managing migraine and other headache syndromes in those over 50.

Migraine in an older person may appear with sensory or motor phenomena ("late-life migraine accompaniments"), so that it may be confused with transient ischemic attack or stroke. An older patient may have cervicogenic headache in addition to migraine. Medication overuse headache is just as much of a problem in older patients as it is in younger ones.

Treatment of headache in the elderly.

Most primary headaches in the elderly are similar to those in younger patients (tension, migraine, and cluster), but there are some differences, such as late-life migraine accompaniments and hypnic headaches. Although migraine in younger persons usually presents with headache, migraine in older persons may initially appear with visual or sensory phenomena, instead of headache ("migraine accompaniments"). Hypnic headaches awaken patients from sleep, are short-lived, and occur only in the elderly.