Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.
Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.
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The PLI performed at least as well as the PC in detecting true changes in synchronization in model and real data but, at the same token and like-wise the IC, it was much less affected by the influence of common sources and active reference electrodes.
Why it matters
This methods paper introduces the phase lag index for measuring functional connectivity from EEG and MEG and tested it in a small set of 15 Alzheimer patients and 13 controls. It is a technical measurement study and offers no information on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Semantic dementia (SD), one of the main clinical variants of frontotemporal dementia, presents a unique combination of clinical and imaging abnormalities.
Why it matters
This review describes semantic dementia as a frontotemporal dementia variant with distinctive language and imaging features, usually showing ubiquitin-positive, tau-negative inclusions. It is descriptive and reports no treatment, cure or prevention.
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Older persons with hip fractures remain at increased risk of subsequent hip fractures.
Why it matters
This study looked at people who had already broken a hip and followed them to see who broke the other hip. It found that dementia was among the characteristics considered as a possible predictor of a second hip fracture, but it does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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This study examined the effect of lifelong bilingualism on maintaining cognitive functioning and delaying the onset of symptoms of dementia in old age.
Why it matters
In 184 patients diagnosed with dementia, bilinguals showed symptoms about 4 years later than monolinguals, with the same rate of decline afterward. This suggests a shift in when symptoms appear, but it does not show that bilingualism prevents or cures dementia.
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These results suggest that the SLUMS and MMSE have comparable sensitivities, specificities, and area under the curve in detecting dementia.
Why it matters
In this pilot study, the Saint Louis University Mental Status examination and the Mini-Mental State Examination had comparable sensitivities, specificities, and area under the curve in detecting dementia. The Saint Louis University Mental Status examination performed better than the Mini-Mental State Examination for diagnosing mild neurocognitive disorder in both education groups.
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Cognitive complaints in older adults may indicate underlying neurodegenerative changes even when unaccompanied by deficits on formal testing.
Why it matters
Older adults with cognitive complaints but normal memory test performance showed gray matter loss similar to amnestic mild cognitive impairment in medial temporal and other regions, though hippocampal volumes were significantly reduced only in the MCI group. The cognitive complaint group may represent a pre-mild cognitive impairment stage offering an earlier therapeutic opportunity.
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The development of common standards represents a first step in a process of use, validation and refinement.
Why it matters
These harmonization standards aim to give researchers common ways to describe and study vascular cognitive impairment, especially in its early stages. They are research and diagnostic standards, not a treatment or cure.
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54/100
Different patterns of gray matter density distribution in patients with mild cognitive impairment may be associated to different rates of conversion to Alzheimer disease.
Why it matters
In this small study of 22 patients with mild cognitive impairment, those who later converted to Alzheimer disease showed more widespread reduced gray matter density than nonconverters, with a pattern similar to that seen in Alzheimer disease. This suggests that different patterns of gray matter loss on MRI may be associated with different risks of conversion.
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Mild cognitive impairment as originally and currently defined is usually early stage Alzheimer disease, which can begin with a cognitive deficit other than memory.
Why it matters
Among very mildly impaired adults (CDR 0.5), people meeting the original memory-only definition of mild cognitive impairment and those meeting the broader revised definition declined at about the same rate (almost 0.50 SD a year on a test composite) and reached mild dementia on similar timescales (median 95% CIs of 3.79–4.07 and 3.29–5.40 years), while a "pre-MCI" group declined about half as fast (0.23 SD a year; 6.72–8.93 years). Among those who came to autopsy, all amnestic-MCI cases and more than 90% of the other two groups met criteria for Alzheimer disease, which led the authors to conclude that MCI under either definition "is usually early stage Alzheimer disease" and that it can begin with problems other than memory. This was an observational follow-up, so it describes typical group courses, not what will happen to any one person.
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Caregivers' reasons for placement included (a) the need for more skilled care (65%); (b) the caregivers' health (49%); (c) the patients' dementia-related behaviors (46%); and (d) the need for more assistance (23%).
Why it matters
This study of 2,200 caregivers found that the main reasons for nursing home placement included need for more skilled care, the caregiver's health, the patient's dementia-related behaviors, and need for more assistance. It is about reasons for institutionalization and does not test any treatment or cure for dementia.
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Depressive symptoms are cross-sectionally associated with cognitive impairment but not subsequent cognitive decline.
Why it matters
Among older adults who remained dementia free, those with baseline depressive symptoms had lower cognitive scores at baseline, but depressive symptoms were not associated with the rate of cognitive decline. This suggests depression relates to cognitive level rather than to faster decline, and it tested no treatment or prevention.
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Cerebral microbleeds might indicate a higher risk of future intracerebral hemorrhage and may be a marker of cerebral small-vessel disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
Why it matters
This review found that cerebral microbleeds are common in people with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic cerebrovascular disease, and in suspected cerebral amyloid angiopathy or Alzheimer's disease they are mostly in cortical-subcortical areas. Current data provided no evidence that microbleeds increase the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients on antithrombotic treatment or thrombolysis, so this does not establish a treatment or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Unmet need may be useful in identifying dementia care recipients at risk for nursing home placement and death.
Why it matters
In this 18-month study of 5,831 dementia patients, greater unmet need for help with daily activities predicted nursing home placement, death, and loss to follow-up. The authors say unmet need may help identify care recipients at risk, but that further study is needed to effectively assess and target intervention protocols.
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Vascular disease in the brain is prevalent among incident dementia cases.
Why it matters
Among 3,375 older adults followed for about 5.7 years after a brain MRI, 213 of the 480 people who developed dementia (about 44%) met criteria for possible or probable vascular dementia, and many of these cases also overlapped with an Alzheimer's diagnosis. The authors conclude that "the substantial contribution of vascular disease would be missed without inclusion of MRI." Linked factors included age, stroke history, white matter changes and MRI-visible infarcts — these are associations, and the study did not test any treatment.
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A registry of the University of Washington Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Satellite.
Why it matters
In a multiethnic sample of 371 older people, the Mini-Cog detected cognitive impairment as well as or better than the Mini-Mental State Examination and was less affected by low education and literacy. It is about improving detection of cognitive impairment, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The incidence of PUs was 0.38 per person-year in the NH.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that Black nursing home residents had a higher incidence of pressure ulcers than white residents, with resident characteristics appearing to mediate the higher risk. It concerns pressure ulcers in nursing homes, not the treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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Percent total HSI, ventricular, and total CSF volume measures can independently predict the rate of cognitive decline and improve the predictive power of statistical models that use only clinical data.
Why it matters
This longitudinal study found that certain MRI brain volume measures, such as percent total high signal intensity, ventricular, and total CSF volumes, could independently predict the rate of cognitive decline in aging and early Alzheimer's disease. It is about predicting decline, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia.
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Delirium is common and often goes undetected in older patients admitted to medical services.
Why it matters
This randomized trial tested whether systematic detection and multidisciplinary care of delirium in older medical inpatients could reduce time to improvement in cognitive status. The provided text does not report the trial's results, so no conclusion can be drawn about whether this approach helps cognition.
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54/100
Falls are a common problem in PD and some of the major risk factors are potentially modifiable.
Why it matters
In this group of people with Parkinson's disease followed for a year, falls occurred in 68.3%, and previous falls, longer disease duration, dementia and loss of arm swing predicted falling. It concerns falls in Parkinson's disease and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Although FTD and SemD are associated with different overall patterns of brain atrophy, regions of gray matter tissue loss in the orbital frontal, insular, and anterior cingulate regions are present in both groups.
Why it matters
In 20 people with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (8 with frontotemporal dementia, 12 with semantic dementia) and 20 controls, MRI showed that the two conditions shrink different parts of the brain: frontal areas in frontotemporal dementia, and the front of the temporal lobe and the amygdala/hippocampus region in semantic dementia. Both groups also lost grey matter in the same orbital frontal, insular and anterior cingulate regions. The authors suggest this shared damage may explain behavioural symptoms common to both. The study is small and compares groups, so it cannot diagnose an individual, and it does not show that these regions cause the symptoms.
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54/100
After adjusting for sociodemographics, comorbidities, and potential caregiving network, those with normal cognition received an average of 4.6 hours per week of informal care.
Why it matters
Using nationally representative survey data, this study estimated the extra weekly hours and cost of informal caregiving for older adults with dementia compared with those with normal cognition. It found that people with mild dementia received an additional 8.5 hours of informal care per week.
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We present a new ARWMC scale applicable to both CT and MRI that has almost equal sensitivity, except for certain regions.
Why it matters
Presents a rating scale for age-related white matter changes in the brain that can be used on both MRI and CT scans. In 77 patients from 4 European centers, agreement between raters was good for MRI and moderate for CT, and MRI was better at detecting small changes.
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In a longitudinal study in which all participants were healthy at the time of their entry into the study, the present authors compared the amount of decline on the subtests of the WISC-R to determine the sequence of cognitive decline associated with varying stages of dementia.
Why it matters
This longitudinal study of 22 adults with Down syndrome and varying cognitive decline, compared with 44 healthy adults with Down syndrome, described a sequence of cognitive decline beginning with a possible pre-clinical stage. It is a descriptive study of decline and offers no treatment, cure, or prevention.
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It has been postulated that oxidative stress may play a key role in dementia.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that intake of antioxidant flavonoids was inversely related to the risk of incident dementia in subjects above 65 years of age. The age-adjusted relative risk of dementia was 0.55 for the two highest tertiles of flavonoid intake compared to the lowest.
From across this topic
10 of the 7,967 studies in this topic, picked by a fixed rule (a hash of each study's address), not by score or date; each page of this list shows a different 10. The same 10 appear here every time.
- Primary Progressive Aphasias and Apraxia of Speech
- The Active Ingredient of Cognitive Restoration: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Sequential Combination of Aerobic Exercise and Computer-Based Cognitive Training in Stroke Survivors With Cognitive Decline
- Analyzing access: an analysis of food desert coverage during COVID-19
- Nursing home manager's knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about advance care planning for people with dementia in long‐term care settings: a cross‐sectional survey
- Multiple-testing corrections in case-control studies using identity-by-descent segments
- Do in vivo experimental models reflect human cerebral small vessel disease? A systematic review
- Improving Respite Outcomes for Caregivers: Who Benefits and Under What Conditions?
- Adherence to Mediterranean diet and subjective cognitive function in men
- Geographic disparities in Alzheimer's disease and related dementia mortality in the US: Comparing impacts of place of birth and place of residence
- Correlates of Mini-Mental Status Examination scores among elderly demented patients: the influence of race-ethnicity