Testing the therapeutic effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in semantic dementia: a double blind, sham controlled, randomized clinical trial.

Background: Semantic dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the left anterior temporal lobe, resulting in a gradual loss of conceptual knowledge. There is currently no validated treatment. Transcranial stimulation has provided evidence for long-lasting language effects presumably linked to stimulation-induced neuroplasticity in post-stroke aphasia.

[Current concepts in vascular dementia].

Vascular dementias, VD, are dementias due to cerebrovascular lesions. Subgroups of VD include multi-infarct dementia, single infarct (or strategic infarct) dementia, subcortical ischemic vascular dementia, hemorrhagic dementia, hypoperfusion dementia. VD are also related to post-stroke dementia, mixed Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia and vascular cognitive impairment.

Awareness of memory deficits in early stage Huntington's disease.

Patients with Huntington's disease (HD) are often described as unaware of their motor symptoms, their behavioral disorders or their cognitive deficits, including memory. Nevertheless, because patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) remain aware of their memory deficits despite striatal dysfunction, we hypothesize that early stage HD patients in whom degeneration predominates in the striatum can accurately judge their own memory disorders whereas more advanced patients cannot. In order to test our hypothesis, we compared subjective questionnaires of memory deficits (in HD patients and in their proxies) and objective measures of memory dysfunction in patients.

White-matter lesions without lacunar infarcts in CADASIL.

To better characterize the clinical spectrum related to white-matter hyperintensities (WMH) in small vessel disease, 66 patients with WMH but without any lacunar infarct were selected out of a cohort of 248 CADASIL individuals. Characteristics of these patients were compared to those of patients with lacunar infarcts. Relationships between the normalized volume of WMH (nWMH), presence of microhemorrhages, brain parenchymal fraction (BPF).

CSF Aβ₁₋₄₂ levels and glucose metabolism in Alzheimer's disease.

Glucose dysmetabolism has been consistently associated with an increased risk of cognitive disorders, and brain insulin resistance could play a role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Recent evidence suggests that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers may reflect the brain pathology in AD. We have investigated the relationship between CSF concentrations of amyloid-β peptide 1-42 (Aβ₁₋₄₂), total tau, and phosphorylated tau (ptau-181) and plasma and CSF glucose levels in a cohort of 94 newly diagnosed non-diabetics AD patients.

Inverse association between CSF Aβ 42 levels and years of education in mild form of Alzheimer's disease: the cognitive reserve theory.

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), the cognitive reserve theory predicts that at any level of assessed clinical severity, the underlying brain pathology is more advanced in patients with more cognitive reserve. Recent evidences suggest that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers may reflect the brain pathology in AD. We investigated the relationship between education level and CSF concentrations of β-amyloid, total tau and phosphorylated tau (ptau-181) in a cohort of 70 subjects newly diagnosed with AD.

Diagnostic criteria of vascular dementia in CADASIL.

Background And Purpose: Subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD) is a major subtype of vascular dementia (VaD). Recently, the diagnostic criteria of VaD have been modified to encompass this entity. Application of these criteria in CADASIL, a genetic model of SIVD, may help to better assess their significance.

[Impairment of executive function in elderly patients with major unipolar depression: influence of psychomotor retardation].

The results from several studies assessing the executive function in depressed patients compared to control subjects varied from significant impairment to normal performance. To assess the executive impairment in elderly patients with major unipolar depression and to evaluate the influence of psychomotor retardation and severity of depression in the executive deficits, the performance of 15 elderly patients with unipolar depression was compared to that of 15 elderly control subjects on executive tasks. The severity of depression was evaluated by the Montgomery and Asberg depressive scale and that of psychomotor retardation by the Widlöcher's scale.