Sustained attention in mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: Attentional impairments are common in dementia with Lewy bodies and its prodromal stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB). People with MCI may be capable of compensating for subtle attentional deficits in most circumstances, and so these may present as occasional lapses of attention. We aimed to assess the utility of a continuous performance task (CPT), which requires sustained attention for several minutes, for measuring attentional performance in MCI-LB in comparison to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD), and any performance deficits which emerged with sustained effort.

Blood pressure and heart rate responses to orthostatic challenge and Valsalva manoeuvre in mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies.

Objectives: Orthostatic hypotension is a common feature of normal ageing, and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, in particular the synucleinopathies including dementia with Lewy bodies. Orthostatic hypotension and other abnormal cardiovascular responses may be early markers of Lewy body disease. We aimed to assess whether abnormal blood pressure and heart rate responses to orthostatic challenge and Valsalva manoeuvre would be more common in mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB) than MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD).

Assessment of autonomic symptoms may assist with early identification of mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies.

Objectives: Autonomic symptoms are a common feature of the synucleinopathies, and may be a distinguishing feature of prodromal Lewy body disease. We aimed to assess whether the cognitive prodrome of dementia with Lewy bodies, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB), would have more severe reported autonomic symptoms than cognitively healthy older adults, with MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD) also included for comparison. We also aimed to assess the utility of an autonomic symptom scale in differentiating MCI-LB from MCI-AD.

Progression to Dementia in Mild Cognitive Impairment With Lewy Bodies or Alzheimer Disease.

Objective: To determine whether mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies or mild cognitive impairment with Alzheimer disease differ in their rates of clinical progression to dementia, we undertook longitudinal observation of mild cognitive impairment cases with detailed clinical assessment of Lewy body diagnostic characteristics.

Methods: Two prospective longitudinal cohorts including 111 individuals ≥60 years of age with mild cognitive impairment were assessed annually to track cognitive and clinical progression, including the presence or absence of core clinical features and proposed biomarkers of dementia with Lewy bodies. Multistate modeling was used to assess the associations of diagnostic characteristics of dementia with Lewy bodies with clinical progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, with death as a competing outcome.

Clinical diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.

Background: Lewy body dementia, consisting of both dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), is considerably under-recognised clinically compared with its frequency in autopsy series.

Aims: This study investigated the clinical diagnostic pathways of patients with Lewy body dementia to assess if difficulties in diagnosis may be contributing to these differences.

Method: We reviewed the medical notes of 74 people with DLB and 72 with non-DLB dementia matched for age, gender and cognitive performance, together with 38 people with PDD and 35 with Parkinson's disease, matched for age and gender, from two geographically distinct UK regions.

Clinical prevalence of Lewy body dementia.

Background: The prevalence of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and dementia in Parkinson's disease (PDD) in routine clinical practice is unclear. Prevalence rates observed in clinical and population-based cohorts and neuropathological studies vary greatly. Small sample sizes and methodological factors in these studies limit generalisability to clinical practice.

Improving retention of very old participants in longitudinal research: experiences from the Newcastle 85+ study.

Background: People aged 85 and over are often excluded from research on the grounds of being difficult to recruit and problematic to retain. The Newcastle 85+ study successfully recruited a cohort of 854 85-year-olds to detailed health assessment at baseline and followed them up over 3 phases spanning 5 years. This paper describes the effectiveness of its retention strategies.

Engaging the oldest old in research: lessons from the Newcastle 85+ study.

Background: Those aged 85 and over, the oldest old, are now the fastest growing sector of the population. Information on their health is essential to inform future planning; however, there is a paucity of up-to-date information on the oldest old, who are often excluded from research. The aim of the Newcastle 85+ Study is to investigate the health of a cohort of 85-year-olds from a biological, medical and psychosocial perspective.