Secular Trends in the Incidence of Dementia in a Multi-Ethnic Community.

Background: Determination of secular trends in cognitive aging is important for prioritization of resources, services, and research in aging populations. Prior studies have identified declining dementia incidence associated with changes in cardiovascular risk factors and increased educational attainment. However, few studies have examined these factors in multi-ethnic cohorts.

Exploring the excess mortality due to depressive symptoms in a community-based sample: The role of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Depression has been associated with increased risk of death. However, there is lack of studies exploring such relationship in the context of dementia. Given the high prevalence of both depression and Alzheimer's Disease (AD), investigating their temporal association with mortality is of public health relevance.

Daytime Sleepiness and Sleep Inadequacy as Risk Factors for Dementia.

Background/aims: To examine the association between self-reported sleep problems and incidence of dementia in community-dwelling elderly people.

Methods: 1,041 nondemented participants over 65 years old were examined longitudinally. Sleep problems were estimated using the RAND Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale examining sleep disturbance, snoring, sleep short of breath or with a headache, sleep adequacy, and sleep somnolence.

Daytime somnolence as an early sign of cognitive decline in a community-based study of older people.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between self-reported sleep problems and cognitive decline in community-dwelling older people. We hypothesized that daytime somnolence predicts subsequent cognitive decline.

Methods: This is a longitudinal study in a 3.

Age-specific penetrance of LRRK2 G2019S in the Michael J. Fox Ashkenazi Jewish LRRK2 Consortium.

Objective: Estimates of the penetrance of LRRK2 G2019S vary widely (24%-100%), reflective of differences in ascertainment, age, sex, ethnic group, and genetic and environmental modifiers.

Methods: The kin-cohort method was used to predict penetrance in 2,270 relatives of 474 Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) Parkinson disease (PD) probands in the Michael J. Fox LRRK2 AJ Consortium in New York and Tel Aviv, Israel.

COMBINING ISOTONIC REGRESSION AND EM ALGORITHM TO PREDICT GENETIC RISK UNDER MONOTONICITY CONSTRAINT.

In certain genetic studies, clinicians and genetic counselors are interested in estimating the cumulative risk of a disease for individuals with and without a rare deleterious mutation. Estimating the cumulative risk is difficult, however, when the estimates are based on family history data. Often, the genetic mutation status in many family members is unknown; instead, only estimated probabilities of a patient having a certain mutation status are available.

Cognitive and motor function in long-duration PARKIN-associated Parkinson disease.

Importance: Data on the long-term cognitive outcomes of patients with PARKIN-associated Parkinson disease (PD) are unknown but may be useful when counseling these patients.

Objective: Among patients with early-onset PD of long duration, we assessed cognitive and motor performances, comparing homozygotes and compound heterozygotes who carry 2 PARKIN mutations with noncarriers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Cross-sectional study of 44 participants at 17 different movement disorder centers who were in the Consortium on Risk for Early-Onset PD study with a duration of PD greater than the median duration (>14 years): 4 homozygotes and 17 compound heterozygotes (hereafter referred to as carriers) and 23 noncarriers.

Central obesity in the elderly is related to late-onset Alzheimer disease.

The evidence relating obesity measured with body mass index (BMI) in the elderly to late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) is conflicting. Central obesity in middle age is related to a higher risk of LOAD, but data in the elderly are lacking. We explored whether measures of central obesity, waist circumference, and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were better predictors of LOAD compared with BMI in the elderly.

Importance of symptomatic cerebral infarcts on cognitive performance in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

The coexistence of cerebral infarcts and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is common, but the influence of symptomatic cerebral infarcts on cognition is uncertain in AD. We hypothesize that symptomatic cerebral infarcts may provide an additive cognitive factor contributing to dementia in the AD population. We studied 1,001 clinically probable or possible AD patients in the Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) database.

Familial aggregation of dementia with Lewy bodies.

Background: Familial aggregation of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) remains unclear.

Objectives: To determine the degree of family aggregation of DLB by comparing DLB risk between siblings of probands with clinically diagnosed DLB and siblings of probands with clinically diagnosed Alzheimer disease in a cohort of Caribbean Hispanic families and to explore the degree of aggregation of specific clinical manifestations (ie, cognitive fluctuations, visual hallucinations, and parkinsonism) in DLB.

Design: Familial cohort study.

Association of higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in elderly individuals and lower risk of late-onset Alzheimer disease.

Objective: To reexamine the association of lipid levels with Alzheimer disease (AD) using Cox proportional hazards models.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Northern Manhattan, New York.

Frequency of known mutations in early-onset Parkinson disease: implication for genetic counseling: the consortium on risk for early onset Parkinson disease study.

Objective: To assess the frequency and clinical characteristics of carriers of previously identified mutations in 6 genes associated with early-onset Parkinson disease (PD) and provide empirical data that can be used to inform genetic counseling.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: Thirteen movement disorders centers.

Physical activity and Alzheimer disease course.

Objectives: To examine the association between physical activity (PA) and Alzheimer disease (AD) course.

Background: PA has been related to lower risk for AD. Whether PA is associated with subsequent AD course has not been investigated.

Plasma ß-amyloid and cognitive decline.

Objectives: To determine if plasma β-amyloid (Aβ) levels (1) can be linked to specific cognitive changes that constitute conversion to Alzheimer disease (AD) and (2) correspond to cognitive change independent of dementia.

Design: Longitudinal study including 3 visits during approximately 4¹/₂ years (2000-2006).

Setting: Northern Manhattan community.

A summary risk score for the prediction of Alzheimer disease in elderly persons.

Objective: To develop a simple summary risk score for the prediction of Alzheimer disease in elderly persons based on their vascular risk profiles.

Design: A longitudinal, community-based study.

Setting: New York, New York.

Do neuropsychological tests have the same meaning in Spanish speakers as they do in English speakers?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether neuropsychological tests translated into Spanish measure the same cognitive constructs as the original English versions.

Method: Older adult participants (N = 2,664), who did not exhibit dementia from the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP), a community-based cohort from northern Manhattan, were evaluated with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The study cohort includes both English (n = 1,800) and Spanish speakers (n = 864) evaluated in their language of preference.

Motor phenotype of LRRK2 G2019S carriers in early-onset Parkinson disease.

Objective: To determine the motor phenotype of LRRK2 G2019S mutation carriers. LRRK2 mutation carriers were previously reported to manifest the tremor dominant motor phenotype, which has been associated with slower motor progression and less cognitive impairment compared with the postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD) phenotype.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Plasma homocysteine and risk of mild cognitive impairment.

Background And Objective: There are conflicting data relating homocysteine levels to the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We sought to explore whether fasting plasma homocysteine is associated with the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an intermediate stage to dementia.

Methods: Fasting levels of plasma homocysteine were obtained from 678 elderly subjects chosen at random from a cohort of Medicare recipients.

Comparison of clinical manifestations in Alzheimer disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Background: The clinical delineation of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer disease (AD) remains unclear.

Objectives: To compare neuropsychological profiles in DLB and AD among Caribbean Hispanic family members and participants in a population-based epidemiologic sample using extended neuropsychological test batteries and to explore whether these differences were related to heritable factors.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Relation of plasma lipids to all-cause mortality in Caucasian, African-American and Hispanic elders.

Objectives: to investigate the relation of plasma lipids to all-cause mortality in a multi-ethnic cohort of non-demented elderly.

Setting: community-based sample of Medicare recipients, 65 years and older, residing in Northern Manhattan.

Participants: about two thousand five hundred and fifty-six non-demented elderly, 65-103 years.

Depressive symptoms, vascular risk factors, and Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Depressive symptoms in the elderly are associated with an increased Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. We sought to determine whether the association between depressive symptoms and AD is explained by a history of vascular risk factors and stroke.

Methods: Five hundred and twenty-six elderly persons from New York City without dementia at baseline were followed for a mean of 5 years.

Plasma lipid levels in the elderly are not associated with the risk of mild cognitive impairment.

Background: There are conflicting data relating plasma lipids to the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We explored the association of plasma lipids to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a transitional stage between normal cognition and dementia, in a prospective community-based cohort study among randomly sampled Medicare recipients > or =65 years. Baseline data were collected from 1992 to 1994, follow-up data were collected at 18-month intervals.

Hypertension and the risk of mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: To explore whether hypertension is associated with the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an intermediate stage of dementia, because there are conflicting data relating hypertension to the risk of Alzheimer disease.

Design And Setting: Prospective community-based cohort study conducted in northern Manhattan. Multivariate proportional hazards regression analyses were used, relating hypertension to incident all-cause MCI, amnestic MCI, and nonamnestic MCI in 918 persons without prevalent MCI at baseline followed up for a mean of 4.

Metabolic syndrome and dementia risk in a multiethnic elderly cohort.

Background/aims: The metabolic syndrome (MeSy) may be related to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our aims were to investigate the association of the MeSy with incident dementia in a multiethnic elderly cohort in the United States.

Methods: We conducted cross-sectional and prospective analyses in 2,476 men and women aged 65 years and older and with data available on the MeSy and dementia diagnosis in Northern New York City.

Frequency of subclinical heart disease in elderly persons with dementia.

The authors compared the frequency of structural and functional heart abnormalities assessed using transthoracic echocardiography among persons with Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, stroke, and healthy control subjects. Compared with controls, patients with Alzheimer's disease were more likely to have aortic valve thickening, aortic valve regurgitation, left ventricular wall motion abnormalities, left ventricular hypertrophy, and reduced ejection fraction. Persons with vascular dementia were more likely to have aortic valve regurgitation, but mitral valve thickening and tricuspid valve regurgitation were also more frequent.