Clinical Neurology (Aminoff): "Dementia & Amnestic Disorders"

Question 1

The main difference between dementia and delirium is ________________.

Answer 1

maintenance of consciousness and constancy of symptoms

Question 2

What is apraxia?

Answer 2

Difficulty in doing certain motor movements despite normal muscular structure.

Question 3

Although memory impairment is a normal part of aging, it is considered abnormal if ____________.

Answer 3

other capacities are compromised (like judgment, visuospatial reasoning, behavior, or language)

Question 4

What percent of dementias are reversible?

Answer 4

10%

Question 5

Autonomic hyperactivity is present more often in ________________.

Answer 5

acute confusional states (aka delirium)

Question 6

Language function is impaired more often in ______________ dementia.

Answer 6

frontotemporal (because Broca’s area)

Question 7

Hypotension is suggestive of which kind of reversible dementia?

Answer 7

Hypothyroidism

Question 8

What does a positive 14-3-3 test indicate?

Answer 8

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Question 9

“Mixed” dementia encompasses which two types of dementia?

Answer 9

Alzheimer’s and vascular

Question 10

Explain the evidence for prionic transmission.

Answer 10

Fetal brain tissue grafted onto the brains of patients with Parkinson’s will develop alpha-synuclein protein aggregates.

Question 11

In addition to Alzheimer’s disease and Pick’s disease, _____________ is also a tau-opathy.

Answer 11

progressive supranuclear palsy

Question 12

Neurofibrillary tangles contain ________-phosphorylated tau proteins.

Answer 12

hyper

Question 13

What percent of Alzheimer’s patients have a genetic cause?

Answer 13

1%

Question 14

Having the apolipoprotein ___ allele lowers the age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Answer 14

E4

Question 15

________-secretase produces the amyloid plaques that cause Alzheimer’s.

Answer 15

Gamma

Question 16

Because the amount of amyloid plaques do not correlate with disease severity, ______________ are thought to be the causal agent of Alzheimer’s.

Answer 16

soluble oligomers of amyloid

Question 17

What does tau do?

Answer 17

It stabilizes microtubules.

Question 18

Unlike amyloid plaques, the amount of tau intracellular tangles does ________________.

Answer 18

correlate with disease severity

Question 19

How do tau tangles cause dementia?

Answer 19

It’s thought that disrupted axonal transport contributes to the symptom profile.

Question 20

List three structural associations with Alzheimer’s.

Answer 20

1) . Cortical atrophy with neuron loss
2) . Vascular changes
3) . Synaptic dysfunction

Question 21

Usually, the presymptomatic phase of Alzheimer’s is about _____ years and the symptomatic phase is _____ years.

Answer 21

10; 10

Question 22

Depression is often present early in Alzheimer’s but sometimes progresses to ______________.

Answer 22

agitation and restlessness

Question 23

Psychosis and loss of social graces are ___________ symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Answer 23

late

Question 24

Amyloid shows up _________ in the Alzheimer’s disease course than tau.

Answer 24

earlier

Question 25

PET scans of those with Alzheimer’s can show _______________.

Answer 25

decreased metabolism in the temporal and parietal lobes

Question 26

What are the three most common causes of dementia?

Answer 26

1) . Alzheimer’s
2) . Vascular
3) . Frontotemporal