Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
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Progranulin is a multifunctional growth factor mainly expressed in neurons and microglia. Loss-of-function mutations in the Granulin (GRN) gene are causative of frontotemporal dementia with TAR DNA-binding protein-43 inclusions. ⋯ Plasma progranulin levels were significantly reduced and in silico analysis predicted a premature termination codon. This case expands our knowledge on GRN mutations in frontotemporal dementia.
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Episodic memory impairment is the core feature of typical Alzheimer's disease. ⋯ The combination of FCSRT and CERAD-WL improves the classification of MCI-AD and defines different prognostic profiles. These findings have important implications for clinical practice and the design of clinical trials.
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Gait speed (GS) and psychomotor speed (PS) could be considered as two different dimensions of age-related slowness and both measures are associated with higher risk of adverse health-related outcomes among elderly people. ⋯ In older French people aged 65+, our findings showed that both low GS and PS were independently associated with risk of incident Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
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Digital Clock Drawing Test (dCDT) technology enables the examination of detailed neurocognitive behavior as behavior unfolds in real time; a capability that cannot be obtained using a traditional pen and paper testing format. ⋯ Longer age-related decision making latencies may reflect a greater need for working memory and increased self-monitoring in older subjects. These latency measures have potential to serve as neurocognitive biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and other insidious neurodegenerative disorders.
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People with Alzheimer's disease (AD) report pain less frequently and receive less pain medication than people without AD. Recent studies have begun to elucidate how pain may be altered in those with AD. However, potential sex differences in pain responsiveness have never been explored in these patients. It is unclear whether sex differences found in prior studies of healthy young and older individuals extend to people with AD. ⋯ Results suggest experimental pain-related sex differences persist in older adults with AD in a different manner than those previously demonstrated in cognitively intact older adults. These findings could potentially aid in developing targeted pain management approaches in this vulnerable population. Further studies are warranted to replicate the findings from this pilot work.