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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Most older patients surviving AMI have measurable CIND.
Why it matters
This registry study found that most older patients surviving acute myocardial infarction had measurable cognitive impairment without dementia. Those with moderate or severe impairment received less invasive care and had worse risk-adjusted 1-year survival, making cognitive status important to consider in heart attack care.
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Acute cognitive impairment and delirium occur after major stroke and are associated with poor cognitive outcome.
Why it matters
This population-based study examined whether transient cognitive impairment occurs soon after transient ischemic attack or minor stroke and whether it predicts long-term cognitive decline. It is about cognitive changes after stroke, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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In FY2008, 50% of patients with PD having a diagnosis of psychosis were prescribed an AP.
Why it matters
This study examined antipsychotic prescribing patterns for Parkinson disease psychosis, finding that half of such patients received antipsychotics. It is about prescribing practice and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The results indicate that a-MCI and na-MCI display a stable pattern of deficits to attention, working memory, and executive function.
Why it matters
In this longitudinal study of 52 people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, 29 with nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 25 controls, both groups showed decline in simple sustained attention and the amnestic group showed decline in divided attention. This describes cognitive changes over time and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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49/100
A substantial proportion of persons with AD who were thought incapable of consenting to lower-risk or higher-risk studies have preserved capacity for appointing a research proxy.
Why it matters
This interview study found that many people with Alzheimer's disease who could not consent to research were still able to appoint a research proxy. It concerns research ethics and consent, not treatment, cure, or prevention of the disease.
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Cognitive impairment, including dementia, is a common but poorly recognized problem among patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), affecting 16-38% of patients.
Why it matters
This review notes that cognitive impairment and dementia are common in people with end-stage renal disease and are linked to higher risks of death, dialysis withdrawal, hospitalization, and disability. It says data on dementia drug efficacy and safety in this population are limited, so medication decisions should be individualized.
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Nonfluent speech in PNFA may be due in part to difficulty with grammatic processing associated with left inferior frontal and anterior-superior temporal disease.
Why it matters
This study found that reduced speech fluency in progressive nonfluent aphasia was predicted by grammatic measures, while in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia it was predicted by executive measures. It is about the basis of nonfluent speech and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention.
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The prevalence of dementia is increasing with expansion of the older adult population.
Why it matters
In a preliminary study of nine older adults with early memory changes, 12 weeks of daily wild blueberry juice was followed by better scores on paired associate learning (p = 0.009) and word list recall (p = 0.04); lower mood symptoms and glucose were only non-significant trends. The trial had no placebo arm of its own, and when compared with a matched group from a companion trial who drank a berry placebo beverage, results for paired associate learning were "comparable". The authors present it as a basis for larger trials, not as evidence that blueberries prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease.
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The aging of the European population will lead to a rapid increase in dementia cases in the coming decades, posing challenges for the organization and provision of end-of-life care.
Why it matters
This study compared place of death for people with dementia across five European countries, finding most died in long-term care facilities and that place of death varied by country and available beds. It addresses end-of-life care settings, not treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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Dementia remains under-diagnosed in the elderly population.
Why it matters
This 2010 review of the screening literature since 1998 concludes that dementia "remains under-diagnosed" in older people, and that the widely used Mini Mental State Exam is most useful in primary care for "ruling out a diagnosis of dementia". It names the Mini-Cog, Memory Impairment Screen and GPCOG as consistently useful in primary care. It also says the clock drawing test, MoCA and RUDAS were "gaining credibility" because they are more sensitive, test executive function and are less affected by culture and education. It is about screening tools, not treatment, cure or prevention, and it reports no accuracy figures.
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Cognitive deficits are commonly observed in stroke patients.
Why it matters
This study examined how well the Mini-Mental State Examination predicts cognitive performance after stroke. It is about a screening test, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) can experience hallucinations (spontaneous aberrant perceptions) and illusions (misinterpretations of real perceptual stimuli).
Why it matters
This review describes hallucinations in Parkinson disease and their possible mechanisms, and notes that evidence-based studies support only one atypical neuroleptic, clozapine, and only in patients without dementia. It reports no treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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49/100
Seventy-five subjects with MCI progressed to dementia by last follow-up.
Why it matters
In 151 people with mild cognitive impairment, a model combining age, sex, hippocampal volumes, a spectroscopy measure called NAA/Cr, and cortical infarctions best predicted progression to dementia, with estimated 3-year progression of 26% in those with normal findings versus 78% in those with hippocampal atrophy, low NAA/Cr, and cortical infarctions. This is a prediction study and does not test any treatment.
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This study examined the validity of the four standard psychological paradigms that have been operationally defined within the CogState brief computerized cognitive assessment battery.
Why it matters
This study examined the validity of the CogState brief computerized battery and found it correlated with standard neuropsychological tests and detected impairment in mild head injury, schizophrenia, and AIDS dementia complex. It does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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This work is part of the multi-center Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a large multi-site study of dementia, including patients having mild cognitive impairment (MCI), probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as healthy elderly controls.
Why it matters
This methods study developed two correction steps to reduce inter-scanner differences in FDG-PET scans across 50 PET centers, reducing variability in phantom data. It is a technical imaging study and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The unique biochemical profile of homocysteine is characterized by chemical reactivity supporting a wide range of molecular effects and by a tendency to promote oxidant stress-induced cellular toxicity.
Why it matters
Although folic acid and B-vitamin therapy lowers homocysteine levels, randomized trials testing whether this helps cardiovascular or cognitive disorders have generally fallen short of expectations. The author notes these trials mostly included people with only mildly elevated homocysteine and did not address some clinical scenarios.
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This study enrolled 184 middle-aged and older women (95 Non-Hispanic White and 89 Hispanic/Latino) who provided in-home hands-on care to an elderly relative with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia.
Why it matters
This trial found that women dementia family caregivers in a cognitive/behavioral small group intervention showed greater improvement in depressive symptoms and stress than those in a telephone control condition. It addresses caregiver well-being, not the treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease in patients.
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Braak and colleagues have proposed that, within the central nervous system, Parkinson's disease (PD) begins as a synucleinopathy in nondopaminergic structures of the lower brainstem or in the olfactory bulb.
Why it matters
Braak's scheme holds that Parkinson's disease begins as synuclein pathology in the lower brainstem or olfactory bulb and spreads upward. This 2008 critique argues that the scheme's predictive value is doubtful: many older people with no neurological signs have Braak stage 4–6 synuclein pathology at autopsy, and Braak stage shows no relation to how severe a patient's Parkinson's is. The authors conclude that how these staining patterns relate to Parkinson's disease "remains to be determined". The paper is about Parkinson's pathology, not Alzheimer's disease.
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Accurate detection and classification of aspiration is a critical component of videofluoroscopic swallowing evaluation, the most commonly utilized instrumental method for dysphagia diagnosis and treatment.
Why it matters
This study compared trained clinician ratings with expert ratings of aspiration on videofluoroscopic images from a randomized clinical trial. It is about swallowing assessment accuracy in patients with dysphagia, not about treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Lesions of the cerebral white matter (WM) result in focal neurobehavioral syndromes, neuropsychiatric phenomena, and dementia.
Why it matters
This review explains how damage to the brain's white matter can cause dementia and other behavioral and neurological problems by disconnecting brain circuits. It is background neuroanatomy and does not report a treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The PRISM-PC questionnaire captures primary care patients' acceptance, perceived harms, and perceived benefits of dementia screening.
Why it matters
This study developed and tested a questionnaire to measure primary care patients' attitudes about dementia screening. It is about measuring attitudes toward screening, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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49/100
Increased total and periventricular (PV) white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden and progression of PV WMH burden are associated with decreased gait performance over time, while progression of subcortical WMH volume is associated with memory decline in cognitively intact elderly.
Why it matters
In cognitively intact older adults followed for up to 13 years, higher initial total and periventricular white matter hyperintensity volume was associated with progression of these hyperintensities and with slower walking. Progression of periventricular hyperintensity volume was linked to increased time to walk 30 feet, and progression of subcortical hyperintensity volume was linked to worse logical memory and faster ventricular enlargement.
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For the 2 vitamin E epidemiological studies, even in 2005, 50% of citing articles remained favorable.
Why it matters
This analysis looked at how often contradicted claims, including a protective effect of estrogen on Alzheimer disease, continued to be cited after randomized trials refuted them. It is about how research findings are reported and cited, not about a treatment for Alzheimer disease.
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Three-, 6-, and 9-year follow-up study.
Why it matters
This study followed 1,255 people aged 75 and older for up to nine years to examine how body mass index relates to developing dementia, including the effect of weight changes. It reports associations over time and does not show that changing weight prevents dementia.
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The current study examined the relationship between cognitive function and falls in older people who did not meet criteria for dementia or mild cognitive impairment (N = 172).
Why it matters
In older people without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, lower scores on Speed/Executive Attention were associated with increased risk of single and recurrent falls, while memory was not associated with falls. This is relevant to fall risk assessment but does not address treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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.
- Penny-wise but Pound-foolish: The Hidden Costs of Step Therapy for Overactive Bladder
- Evidence and implications of abnormal predictive coding in dementia
- Prognostic factors in very old demented adults: a seven-year follow-up from a population-based survey in Stockholm
- Hippocampal development - old and new findings
- Longitudinal structure-function correlates in elderly reveal MTL dysfunction with cognitive decline
- Malnutrition and associated factors among aged residents in all nursing homes in Helsinki
- Medial temporal atrophy rather than white matter hyperintensities predict cognitive decline in stroke survivors
- The elephant in the room - healthy brains in later life, epidemiology and public health
- Do cognitive interventions improve general cognition in dementia? A meta-analysis and meta-regression
- Dementia and neurocognitive disorders due to HIV-1 infection