Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Flashcards

Question

What are some alzheimer's facts?

Answer 1

1. 70-80% cause of dementia (most common cause) | 2. a lot in canada

Answer 2

symptoms: - impairment of memory and attention - language and communication - abstract thinking - judgement - personality changes - depression - visuospatial disorientation (difficulty orienting in space) signs: - motor and gait disturbance (balance) - poverty of movement and slowness - falls - problems with bladder and bowel control - seizures

Answer 3

1. early diagnosis --> shows increasing number of cognitive symptoms 2. mild-moderate --> loss of functional independence, behavioural problems 3. severe --> nursing home placements and death

Answer 4

occurrence: most cases occur usually late 60's or later etiology: 1. familial forms: less than 10% of cases 2. sporadic (unknown case) --> over 90% of cases 3. early onset like 40s and 50s is usually familial and associated with susceptibility genes that include mutations of amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 and 2 mutations 3. late onset (60s and later) --> mostly sporadic (unknown cause) - E4 gene is the main susceptibility gene, some other genes include SORL1, Clustering CLU, complement receptor 1 CR1 and TREM2

Answer 5

1. cortical atrophy (brain shrinkage) 2. synaptic and neuronal loss 3. neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) with paired helical filaments, abnormally hyperphosphorylated forms of microtubule associated TAU protein 4. neuritic plaques with amyloid core 5. amyloid angiopathy

Answer 6

its not specific to AD but it shows widening of sulk and thinning of cortex

Answer 7

the brains of people with AD have an abidance of two abnormal structures 1. beta-amyloid plaques: these are dense deposits of proteins and cellular material that accumulate outside and around nerve cells 2. neurofibrillary tangles --> which are twisted fibres that build up inside the nerve cell

Answer 8

APP is a membrane protein that sits in the membrane end and extends outwards it is thought to be important for neuronal growth, survival and repair enzymes cut the APP into fragments, the most important of which for AD is called the beta-amyloid enzyme Beta-amyloid is "sticky" so the fragments that are cut cling together along with other materials in the cell forming the plaques seen the AD brain

Answer 9

- low chemical messengers in the brain especially acetylcholine from the cortex and hippocampus areas

Answer 10

aCH lives in the basal forebrain and spreads through the cortex - when the basal forebrain areas die, it produces less ACH

Answer 11

- choleninergic drugs act to block reuptake sites for aCH and increase release of it, and keep it longer in the synapse also has selective m1 agonists drugs include: cholinesterase inhibitors: donepezil (accept), rivastigmine (exelon), galatamine (reminyl) ... these stop the enzyme cholinesterase from eating the aCH

Answer 12

memantine, which is a glutamate receptor modulator

Answer 13

- amyloid vaccine - secretase inhibitors - anti amyloid agents - drugs that lower cholesterol

Answer 14

- estrogens - NSAID's - vasodilators - propentofylline

Answer 15

- higher education - intellectual stimulation - excersize and diet these are not backed up by science though

Answer 16

- involves fluctuating cognition with pronounced variation in attention and alertness (one day they have good cognition and the other day they don't) - recurrent visual hallucinations - parkingsonian features like rigidity, stiffness in muscles, slowness, and poverty of movement and tremors - treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors, antipsychotic drugs to control behavioural problems and agitation and hallucinations it is represented in the brain by loss of pigmented (dopamine containing) neurons in the substantia nigra in parking sons and dementia with lewy bodies which look similar also its the presence of lewy bodies which contain alpha synuclein protein

Answer 17

- female preponderance and at a younger age than AD - focal frontal and temporal lobe atrophy - disinhibition, apathy, perseveration, mental rigidity and affective symptoms - tau pathology is most frequently observed - gene on chromosome 17 is apparently mutated - ALS or lou gherig disease are either forms associated with neurodegenerative condition the pick bodies that are present are called tau theres no cure

Answer 18

- accounts for 1-015% of dementias - dementia occurs stroke by stroke with progressive focal loss of function - risk factors that cause stroke are present in patients such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking - may occur concurrently with neurodegenerative dementia - CT scan may show multiple areas of cerebral infarction (obstruction of blood supply) - treatment of hypertension and other vascular risk factors MRI scan shows multiple small strokes

Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Flashcards

(42 cards)