Relevance of Follow-Up in Patients with Core Clinical Criteria for Alzheimer Disease and Normal CSF Biomarkers.

Background: Few patients with a normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker profile fulfill the clinical criteria for Alzheimer disease (AD).

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis of misdiagnoses for these patients.

Method: Patients from the e-PLM centers fulfilling the core clinical criteria for probable AD dementia or mild cognitive impairment due to AD (AD-MCI), with normal CSF Aβ1-42, T-tau and P-tau biomarkers and clinical follow-up, were included.

Hedonic Assessment of Odors: A Comparison of Two Sensory Scales for Use with Alzheimer's Disease Patients and Elderly Individuals.

Background: Several clinical studies concerning the olfactory function of patients with cognitive impairment have used sensory scales to investigate hedonic perception. However, no study has focused on the choice of the most appropriate sensory hedonic scale for the individuals with neurodegenerative disorders or other psychiatric diseases involving cognitive deficits.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) to use two hedonic scales (category scale and linear scale) and compare their discriminatory capacity, repeatability, and ease of use.

Toward a clinic of temporality?

The discovery of time cells has expanded our knowledge in the field of spatial and temporal information coding and the key role of the hippocampus. The internal clock model complemented with the attentional gate model allows a more in-depth understanding of the perception of time. The motor representation of duration is ensured by the basal ganglia, while the cerebellum synchronizes short duration for the movement.

Subacute corticobasal syndrome following internal carotid endarterectomy.

The present report is of two patients who, immediately after internal carotid endarterectomy, presented with unexplained hemiplegia, despite normal findings on repeated MRI scans, which secondarily evolved into homolateral subacute corticobasal syndrome (CBS), with asymmetrical hemispheric hypometabolism and evidence of dopaminergic denervation. This prompted us to propose an hypothesis of transient cerebral hypoxia arising during the surgical clamping period that might have provoked a prolonged or permanent functional lesion of the left hemisphere and basal ganglia, with no visible infarction on MRI but only synaptic rearrangement of the neural networks, thereby revealing or exacerbating a potentially preexisting silent impairment.

Insular atrophy at the prodromal stage of dementia with Lewy bodies: a VBM DARTEL study.

Diffuse atrophy including the insula was previously demonstrated in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) patients but little is known about the prodromal stage of DLB (pro-DLB). In this prospective study, we used SPM8-DARTEL to measure gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) atrophy in pro-DLB patients (n = 54), prodromal Alzheimer's disease (pro-AD) patients (n = 16), DLB patients at the stage of dementia (mild-DLB) (n = 15), and Alzheimer's disease patients at the stage of dementia (mild-AD) (n = 28), and compared them with healthy elderly controls (HC, n = 22). Diminished GM volumes were found in bilateral insula in pro-DLB patients, a trend to significance in right hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus in pro-AD patients, in left insula in mild-DLB patients, and in medial temporal lobes and insula in mild-AD patients.

Anticholinergic drugs and functional, cognitive impairment and behavioral disturbances in patients from a memory clinic with subjective cognitive decline or neurocognitive disorders.

Background: Drugs with anticholinergic properties may be associated with various adverse clinical effects. The relationship between the anticholinergic (AC) burden and functional, global cognitive performance and behavior disturbances was assessed among elderly patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2012 and June 2014 in a memory clinic among outpatients living at home and with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or neurocognitive disorders (NCD).

Assistive Technologies to Address Capabilities of People with Dementia: From Research to Practice.

Assistive technologies became pervasive and virtually present in all our life domains. They can be either an enabler or an obstacle leading to social exclusion. The Fondation Médéric Alzheimer gathered international experts of dementia care, with backgrounds in biomedical, human and social sciences, to analyze how assistive technologies can address the capabilities of people with dementia, on the basis of their needs.

Prodromal stage of disease (dementia) with Lewy bodies, how to diagnose in practice?

Disease with Lewy bodies or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), particularly at the prodromal stage, is a complex disease to diagnose because of different clinical beginnings and variable paths in terms of clinical expression. Thus DLB can be entcountered in different input modes: mild cognitive impairment, depression, acute behavioral disorders, confusion and delirium, or sleep disorders. In the aim to better diagnose the disease, should be sought obviously to search for the key symptoms: fluctuations, hallucinations, extra-pyramidal syndrome, and REM sleep behavior disorder.

[Dementia and non-pharmacological therapy, the effectiveness of play].

A study was carried out to look into the effectiveness of play and the ways it can be used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. An intervention founded on the principal of a recreational setting, taking into account the choice of objects, the layout of the space and the role of the professional, could present itself as a form of therapeutic mediation adapted to this pathology. This study shows that play helps to reduce the behavioural problems of residents with Alzheimer's disease, and boosted their wellbeing and quality of life.

Antipsychotic prescribing for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders in specialized settings from 2010 to 2014 in France: a repeated cross-sectional study.

Background: Safety warnings from health authorities are currently intended to limit the use of antipsychotics (APs) in dementia-related conditions to treat neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as disturbing and/or delusional behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate prevalence, correlates and trends of AP prescribing among people with dementia between 2010 and 2014 in the French population.

Methods: AP prescribing and associated factors among individuals with AD, mixed dementia and vascular dementia in the French National Alzheimer Database between 2010 and 2014 were analyzed using multivariate generalized estimating equations models (n = 199,549).

Adapting the mini mental status to the context of the West-Indies.

The mini mental state examination (MMSE) has become a benchmark for the screening and follow-up of cognitive impairment. The numerous translations of the MMS into other languages attest to its popularity. Clinical practice suggests that the consensual French version from the Greco (Groupe de réflexion sur les évaluations cognitives - Research working group for cognitive assessment) is not adapted to the West-Indies population because of the low socio-economic level and the widespread use of the Creole language among the elderly population.

Objective measurement of gait parameters in healthy and cognitively impaired elderly using the dual-task paradigm.

Objectives: The present study explores the differences in gait parameters in elderly subjects with or without cognitive impairment measured by means of ambulatory actigraphy while performing a single and a dual task.

Methods: Sixty-nine participants of which 23 individuals were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 24 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 22 healthy controls performed a single and dual walking task while wearing a wrist-worn accelerometer. Objective measures of gait features such as walking speed, cadence (i.

Biochemical analysis of α-synuclein extracted from control and Parkinson's disease colonic biopsies.

Lewy bodies and neurites, the pathological hallmarks found in the brain of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, are primarily composed of aggregated and hyperphosphorylated alpha-synuclein. The observation that alpha-synuclein inclusions are also found in the gut of the vast majority of parkinsonian patients has led to an increasing number of studies aimed at developing diagnostic procedures based on the detection of pathological alpha-synuclein in gastrointestinal biopsies. The previous studies, which have all used immunohistochemistry for the detection of alpha-synuclein, have provided conflicting results.

[The nursing consultation in a CMRR].

Resource and research memory centres (CMRRs) cater for patients with a cognitive disorder, usually with memory loss. Their aim is to establish if there is an underlying neurodegenerative pathology, Alzheimer's disease or related syndrome.

Factors associated with changes in exposure to anticholinergic and sedative medications in elderly hospitalized patients: multicentre longitudinal study.

Background And Purpose: Elderly patients exposed to drugs with anticholinergic or sedative properties may have an increased risk of adverse events. This study aimed to assess the relationship between patient characteristics and changes of exposure to anticholinergic and sedative medications during their hospital stay.

Methods: A multicentre longitudinal study was set up on hospitalized patients (aged ≥65 years) using at least one drug at admission.

17q21.31 duplication causes prominent tau-related dementia with increased MAPT expression.

To assess the role of rare copy number variations in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we conducted a case-control study using whole-exome sequencing data from 522 early-onset cases and 584 controls. The most recurrent rearrangement was a 17q21.31 microduplication, overlapping the CRHR1, MAPT, STH and KANSL1 genes that was found in four cases, including one de novo rearrangement, and was absent in controls.

Recommendations for the Use of ICT in Elderly Populations with Affective Disorders.

: Affective disorders are frequently encountered among elderly populations, and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) could provide an added value for their recognition and assessment in addition to current clinical methods. The diversity and lack of consensus in the emerging field of ICTs is however a strong limitation for their global use in daily practice. The aim of the present article is to provide recommendations for the use of ICTs for the assessment and management of affective disorders among elderly populations with or without dementia.

Primary Progressive Aphasia in the Network of French Alzheimer Plan Memory Centers.

Background: Few demographical data about primary progressive aphasia (PPA) are available, and most knowledge regarding PPA is based on tertiary centers' results.

Objective: Our aims were to describe demographical characteristics of the PPA population in a large sample of PPA patients from the network of French Alzheimer plan memory centers (Sample 1), and to describe the stratification of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in two different samples of PPA patients (Samples 2 and 3).

Methods: All registered PPA patients in the French Alzheimer's disease (AD) databank (Sample 1: n = 2,035) and a subsample (Sample 2: n = 65) derived from a multicentric prospective cohort with CSF biomarker analysis were analyzed.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers in Isolated Supratentorial Cortical Superficial Siderosis.

We evaluated cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-β 1-40 (Aβ40), amyloid-β 1-42 (Aβ42), total and phosphorylated-tau (t-tau and p-tau) in patients with symptomatic isolated cortical supratentorial superficial siderosis (SS), by prospectively recruiting ten patients with SS in the absence of pre-existing cognitive dysfunction, and comparing biomarkers with lobar hematoma cerebral amyloid angiopathy patients (LH-CAA, n = 13), Alzheimer's disease patients (AD, n = 42), and controls (n = 16). Compared to controls, SS patients showed statistically significant higher t-tau (p = 0.019) and lower Aβ42 (p = 0.

Saccadic eye movements: what do they tell us about aging cognition?

Although the relationship between age-related cognitive decline and saccadic eye movement (SEM) deficits has been outlined, specific cognitive alterations underlying age-related changes in saccadic performance remain unclear. This study attempted to better understand the nature of aging effects on SEMs. We compared SEMs in younger and older adults in prosaccade (PS) and antisaccade (AS) tasks under gap, step, and overlap conditions.

Benefits from an autobiographical memory facilitation programme in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: a clinical and neuroimaging study.

While the efficacy of mental visual imagery (MVI) to alleviate autobiographical memory (AM) impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients has been documented, nothing is known about the brain changes sustaining that improvement. To explore this issue, 20 relapsing-remitting MS patients showing AM impairment were randomly assigned to two groups, experimental (n = 10), who underwent the MVI programme, and control (n = 10), who followed a sham verbal programme. Besides the stringent AM assessment, the patients underwent structural and functional MRI sessions, consisting in retrieving personal memories, within a pre-/post-facilitation study design.

The pre-synaptic vesicle protein synaptotagmin is a novel biomarker for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Synaptic degeneration is a central pathogenic event in Alzheimer's disease that occurs early during the course of disease and correlates with cognitive symptoms. The pre-synaptic vesicle protein synaptotagmin-1 appears to be essential for the maintenance of an intact synaptic transmission and cognitive function. Synaptotagmin-1 in cerebrospinal fluid is a candidate Alzheimer biomarker for synaptic dysfunction that also may correlate with cognitive decline.

[Serious game, a link between institution and home].

Serious game is a personal innovative technology to facilitate learning and social interaction. It can be used in a patient's home or in an institution. This training tool can also be developed for health professionals, especially accommodation facilities for the elderly.

[Connected home, monitoring and improved care].

New technologies offer a new approach to healthcare management that benefits the patient, especially at home: better living spaces, improved safety and preservation of communication. Professionals concerned and family caregivers should be trained in these new technologies to discover and explore everyday their possibilities and uses.