Current Alzheimer Research - Volume 6, Issue 4, 2009

Current Alzheimer Research is delighted to present a special issue entitled ‘Perspective on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)’. This special issue is based on scientific presentations given at the ‘Symposia on Mild Cognitive Impairment’, organized by the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA, from April 18-19, 2008. This issue contains a collection of eleven peer-reviewed articles Read More

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The field of aging and dementia research is advancing rapidly toward the stage of earlier identification of clinical symptoms. Ultimately, clinicians would like to be able to identify individuals who are asymptomatic but at risk for developing dementia. In the interim, the construct of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has come to represent an intermediate clinical state between the cognitive changes of aging and the very earliest fea Read More

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by a gradual dissolution of language, but relative sparing of other cognitive domains during the initial stages of the disease. Research has led to substantial progress in understanding the clinical characteristics, genetics, and neuropathology of this syndrome. This article reviews the clinical criteria for diagnosing PPA, discusses the Read More

Frontotemporal dementia is a disorder of paralimbic prefrontal-insular circuitry. The disorder is often sporadic but can be caused by genetic mutations in tau, progranulin, valosin, TDP-43 and CHMP2b. The major clinical manifestations of FTD include addictive behaviors, disinhibition, apathy, overeating and loss of sympathy and empathy for others. Treatment is currently focused around symptoms but disease-modifyi Read More

The definition of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a precursor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) represented an important step forward in diagnosing the illness in its earliest stage. However, diagnoses based principally on cognitive performance have limitations in that there is variability between centers in which tests are employed and in how they are interpreted. Advances in our understanding of imaging and biochemical chang Read More

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is a multi-center study assessing neuroimaging in diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring. Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) often represents a prodromal form of dementia, conferring a 10-15% annual risk of converting to probable AD. We analyzed baseline 1.5T MRI scans in 693 participants from the ADNI cohort divided into four groups by baseline diagnos Read More

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an intermediate stage between normalcy and dementia, is characterized by fewer symptoms and less functional decline than dementia with less established biological disease processes and is an attractive target for both symptomatic and disease progression therapies. It is always desirable to treat symptoms or slow disease at a stage where the individual is still largely functional. Therapeutic s Read More

The number of older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders is expected to triple over the next 50 years. While we may be on the cusp of important therapeutic advances, such advances will not alter the disease course for millions of persons already affected. Hoping for technology to spare the health care system from the need to care for older adults with dementia is no longer tenable. Most older adults Read More

This paper is based on a presentation made during the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center's Symposium on Mild Cognitive Impairment on April 19, 2008. The results of the ACTIVE study (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) were presented at the symposium including review of previously published study findings. The ACTIVE study is a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial that has been exam Read More

The purpose of this paper is to describe commonalities of the lived experience of being a spouse caregiver of a person with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The Colaizzi method of empirical phenomenology was used for inter-viewing and analyzing data obtained from 10 spouse caregivers of persons with MCI. Four major themes were found and labeled: (a) Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together-There Really is Somet Read More

The purpose of the paper is to describe common psychological and caregiving issues that can cause stress in family members of persons with mild cognitive impairment (PwMCI) in order to assist family members in providing care and support to the PwMCI while also caring for themselves over long periods of time. Because PwMCI and their family members have time to prepare for the future should the PwMCI no longer be able Read More

A crucial need exists for reliable Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnostic and prognostic tests. Given its intimate communication with the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been surveyed intensively for reliable AD biomarkers. The heterogeneity of AD pathology and the unavoidable difficulties associated with the clinical diagnosis and differentiation of this dementia from other pathologies have confounded biomarker Read More