Publications by authors named "S Laatu"

Objectives: This study examined whether controlling for educational background in the CERAD cognitive screening battery would affect the likelihood of patients with Parkinson's disease to fulfill criteria for mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and dementia (PDD).

Materials & Methods: One-hundred seventeen patients with PD were studied. Cognitive impairment was determined as two subtest scores falling below either the standard cutoff scores or education-corrected cutoff scores.

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Objectives: Many patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) develop mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and dementia (PDD). The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) neurocognitive test battery was originally developed to identify early Alzheimer's disease, but it has become a widely used screening instrument also for other types of dementia. The aim of the study was to examine differences in CERAD test performances between cognitively intact and impaired PD patients.

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Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms and impairment in performing activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are strong predictors of the overall caregiver burden and they increase the risk for nursing home admission of the patients. The purpose of the present study was to assess the association of neuropsychiatric symptoms and ADL functions in PD.

Methods: A total of 73 community-dwelling PD patients were studied.

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Background: Neuropsychological studies have extensively described the presence of cognitive dysfunction in MS patients. One possible pharmacological treatment of the impairment could be based on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), which have shown efficacy in alleviating cognitive impairment in many other disorders. The findings on the efficacy of AChEI medication in MS associated cognitive symptoms are preliminary and no studies concerning cerebral acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in these patients have been published.

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The nature of the visual perception deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) has remained unclear. The present study explored whether there emerge deficits in the different stages of visual object recognition in early PD. Twenty-eight patients and 14 healthy controls were studied.

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