Semantic profiles in mild cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

The temporal and the prefrontal cortices have different roles in semantic information processing: the temporal lobe is where knowledge is stored (Graham and Hodges, 1997), whereas the prefrontal cortex is more specifically involved in executive aspects of semantic processing. Relatively little is known about the semantic profiles of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). This observational study investigated naming and semantic questionnaire performances in three groups of subjects: 10 patients with the amnestic-type MCI prodrome of AD (aMCI), 10 patients with early-stage executive-type MCI in PD (MCI-PD), and 10 normal subjects.

Living with mild to moderate Alzheimer patients increases the caregiver's burden at 6 months.

The objective of our study was to demonstrate that living with a person affected by mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease can lead to an increased perception of the caregiver's burden using the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). The sample consisted of 153 dyads, caregiver-patient. At baseline, a greater perception of the caregiver's burden was observed in the live-in caregivers.

Sex differences in pudendal somatosensory evoked potentials.

Background: Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) of the pudendal nerve are a well-established diagnostic tool for the evaluation of pelvic floor disorders. However, the possible influence of sex differences on response latencies has not been established yet. The aim of this study was to standardize the procedures and to evaluate possible effects of gender differences on anal and penile/clitoral SEPs.

The UP-TECH project, an intervention to support caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients in Italy: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The epidemic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents a significant challenge for the health care and social service systems of many developed countries. AD affects both patients and family caregivers, on whom the main burden of care falls, putting them at higher risk of stress, anxiety, mortality and lower quality of life. Evidence remains controversial concerning the effectiveness of providing support to caregivers of AD patients, through case management, counseling, training, technological devices and the integration of existing care services.

Change of accent as an atypical onset of non fluent primary progressive aphasia.

Language disorders can be the first symptom of many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The main variants of PPA are: the non-fluent/agrammatic variant, the semantic variant and the logopenic variant.Several additional variants of PPA, however, have been described and are considered as atypical presentations.