Subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) frequently develop dementia with greater than one-third meeting neuropathologic diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The objective is to identify clinical and neuropathological differences between PDD (PD with dementia) subjects, with and without coexistent AD pathology. Neuropathologic examination was available on subjects diagnosed by clinicopathologic criteria with PDD-AD (N = 23) and PDD+AD (N = 28). A small subset of subjects with PDD-AD and PDD+AD had received at least one standardized neuropsychological assessment. PDD+AD subjects were significantly older at age of PD onset and death, progressed to onset of dementia in less time, and had a shorter duration of PD symptoms prior to the onset of dementia. Education, responsiveness of L-Dopa and dopaminergic medications, presence of cognitive fluctuations and hallucinations, mean MMSE, GDS, FAST and UPDRS scores did not differ significantly between the two groups. The PDD+AD group had significantly greater total plaques, neuritic plaques, total tangles, and Braak stages compared to PDD-AD. This study suggests that it is difficult to distinguish PDD+AD and PDD-AD on the basis of movement, clinical, and neuropsychological assessment. PDD-AD and PDD+AD have similar degrees of dementia and approximately half of PDD subjects have enough AD pathology to attain a neuropathological diagnosis of AD. PDD can develop in the absence of significant Alzheimer pathology.
Background Cognitive, global and functional instruments have been extensively investigated for correlations with neuropathological changes such as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), plaques, and synapse loss in the brain. Objective Our objective is to correlate the functional, global and cognitive decline assessed clinically with the neuropathological changes observed in a large prospectively characterized cohort of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods We examined 150 subjects (16 MCI and 134 AD) that were prospectively assessed and longitudinally followed to autopsy. MCI subjects clinically met Petersen criteria for single or multi-domain amnestic MCI. AD subjects clinically met NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for probable or possible AD. All subjects received the Functional Assessment Staging (FAST), the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) ante-mortem. Plaque and tangle counts were gathered for hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, frontal, temporal and parietal cortices. Braak staging was performed as well. Results The GDS, FAST and MMSE correlated with plaque counts in all regions. The GDS, FAST and MMSE correlated with tangle counts in in all regions. The three instruments also correlated with the Braak score. The MMSE and GDS correlate better than the FAST in most regions. Conclusions Accumulation of neuropathology appears to correlate with functional, global, and cognitive decline as people progress from MCI through AD. In our study, both tangle and plaque accumulation correlated to clinical decline but when AD is considered alone, the correlations are not as robust.
Background/Aims: Previously we have shown that functional declines in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) correlate to global measures of cognitive decline. We now determine if the correlation between cognitive impairment and functional ability in PD is similar to that in AD using individual cognitive measures. Methods: 93 PD subjects and 124 AD/MCI subjects underwent the Functional Assessment Staging (FAST), the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), and a neuropsychological battery. Results: In PD subjects, the FAST and GDS correlated significantly with Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA), Animal Fluency, and Stroop but not with Clock Draw or Judgment Line Orientation (JLO). In AD/MCI subjects, FAST and GDS correlated with all neuropsychological components except Stroop. In the AD/MCI group, the UPDRS significantly correlated with the FAST, GDS, MMSE, and all neuropsychological parameters except the Stroop. In the PD group, the motor UPDRS significantly correlated significantly with FAST, GDS, MMSE and all neuropsychological parameters except Digit Span, Stroop, Clock Draw and JLO. Conclusions: Similar to AD, functional decline in PD correlates with multiple measures of cognitive impairment. Some differences between PD and AD may be explained by the influence of motor disability and declines in visuospatial function in PD.
ApoE gene status has minimal influence on the lipid panel or mean age in AD. Apo E gene dose does influence the lipid panel with Apo E 2/2, and 2/3 having significantly better lipid panels and older age of onset.
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