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Background/objective: The aim of this study was to describe the rate and clinical predictors of cognitive decline in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and compare the findings with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) patients.Methods: Longitudinal scores for the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in 1,290 patients (835 DLB, 198 PDD, and 257 AD) were available from 18 centers with up to three years longitudinal data. Linear mixed effects analyses with appropriate covariates were used to model MMSE decline over time. Several subgroup analyses were performed, defined by anti-dementia medication use, baseline MMSE score, and DLB core features.Results: The mean annual decline in MMSE score was 2.1 points in DLB, compared to 1.6 in AD (p = 0.07 compared to DLB) and 1.8 in PDD (p = 0.19). Rates of decline were significantly higher in DLB compared to AD and PDD when baseline MMSE score was included as a covariate, and when only those DLB patients with an abnormal dopamine transporter SPECT scan were included. Decline was not predicted by sex, baseline MMSE score, or presence of specific DLB core features.Conclusions: The average annual decline in MMSE score in DLB is approximately two points. Although in the overall analyses there were no differences in the rate of decline between the three neurodegenerative disorders, there were indications of a more rapid decline in DLB than in AD and PDD. Further studies are needed to understand the predictors and mechanisms of cognitive decline in DLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Concomitant Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology is observed in Lewy body diseases (LBD), but the clinical impact is unknown. Only a few biomarker studies in LBD exist and have included small cohorts from single centers.Objective: We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers across the spectrum of LBD in a large multicenter cohort and to assess whether an AD biomarker profile was associated with demographic and clinical differences in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).Methods: We included 375 DLB patients, 164 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients without dementia, and 55 PD patients with dementia (PDD) from 10 centers. CSF amyloid-beta42 (Aβ42), total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) values were dichotomized as abnormal or normal according to locally available cut-off values. A CSF AD profile was defined as abnormal Aβ42 combined with abnormal t-tau and/or p-tau.Results: A substantial proportion of DLB patients had abnormal values for CSF Aβ42, t-tau, and p-tau, while abnormal values were uncommon in PD without dementia. Patients with PDD had values in between. A CSF AD profile was observed in 25% of DLB patients, compared with only 9% of PDD and 3% of PD without dementia. Within DLB, patients with a CSF AD profile were older, more often female, performed worse on the Mini-Mental State Examination, and had shorter disease duration compared with patients with normal CSF.Conclusion: A CSF AD profile is more common in DLB compared with PDD and PD, and is associated with more severe cognitive impairment in DLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease pathologies are common in dementia with Lewy bodies, but their clinical relevance is not clear. CSF biomarkers amyloid beta 1-42, total tau, and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 reflect Alzheimer's disease neuropathology antemortem. In PD, low CSF amyloid beta 1-42 predict long-term cognitive decline, but little is known about these biomarkers as predictors for cognitive decline in Lewy body dementia. The aim of this study was to assess whether Alzheimer's disease CSF biomarkers predict cognitive decline in Lewy body dementia.Methods: From a large European dementia with Lewy bodies multicenter study, we analyzed baseline Alzheimer's disease CSF biomarkers and serial MMSE (baseline and 1- and 2-year follow-up) in 100 patients with Lewy body dementia. Linear mixed-effects analyses, adjusted for sex, age, baseline MMSE, and education, were performed to model the association between CSF biomarkers and rate of cognitive decline measured with MMSE. An Alzheimer's disease CSF profile was defined as pathological amyloid beta 1-42 plus pathological total tau or phosphorylated tau.Results: The Alzheimer's disease CSF profile, and pathological levels of amyloid beta 1-42, were associated with a more rapid decline in MMSE (2.2 [P < 0.05] and 2.9 points difference [P < 0.01], respectively). Higher total tau values showed a trend toward association without statistical significance (2.0 points difference; P = 0.064), whereas phosphorylated tau was not associated with decline.Conclusions: Reduced levels of CSF amyloid beta 1-42 were associated with more rapid cognitive decline in Lewy body dementia patients. Future prospective studies should include larger samples, centralized CSF analyses, longer follow-up, and biomarker-pathology correlation. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Subcutaneous apomorphine infusion (Apo) and intrajejunal levodopa infusion (IJLI) are two treatment options for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) and refractory motor complications, with varying cost of treatment. There are no multicenter studies comparing the effects of the two strategies. This open-label, prospective, observational, 6-month, multicenter study compared 43 patients on Apo (48.8% males, age 62.3 ± 10.6 years; disease duration: 14 ± 4.4 years; median H & Y stage 3; interquartile range [IQR]: 3-4) and 44 on IJLI (56.8% males, age 62.7 ± 9.1 years; disease duration: 16.1 ± 6.7 years; median H & Y stage 4; IQR, 3-4). Cohen's effect sizes (≥0.8 considered as large) were 'large' with both therapies with respect to total motor, nonmotor, and quality-of-life scores. The Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) with Apo showed moderate improvement, whereas sleep/fatigue, gastrointestinal, urinary, and sexual dimensions of the NMSS showed significantly higher improvement with IJLI. Seventy-five percent on IJLI improved in their quality-of-life and nonmotor symptoms (NMS), whereas in the Apo group, a similar proportion improved in quality of life, but 40% in NMS. Adverse effects included peritonitis with IJLI and skin nodules on Apo. Based on this open-label, nonrandomized, comparative study, we report that, in advanced Parkinson's patients, both IJLI and Apo infusion therapy appear to provide a robust improvement in motor symptoms, motor complications, quality-of-life, and some NMS. Controlled, randomized studies are required. © 2014 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the last decade, research efforts have facilitated early detection of dementia and underlying diseases, such as Alzheimer disease (AD). There is growing evidence for the benefits of early diagnosis, including access to education, available treatment and support. On the other hand, the lack of a cure and the fear to stigmatize the patient are among the arguments that speak against early disclosure of a diagnosis. General Practitioners (GPs) are often the first contact person when cognitive changes arrive, and they play a key role in early identification of the disease. Based on the experiences working with GPs as part of the multinational "Models of Patient Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease" (MOPEAD) project, an EU‐funded public‐private study within the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI‐2) research agenda, we aimed to assess the current attitude of GPs towards early and pre‐dementia diagnosis for AD at the stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or very mild dementia. Method: We designed a survey to measure the current attitude of GPs towards early and pre‐dementia diagnosis of AD at the MOPEAD sites in five European countries (Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands). The questionnaire covered several topics, including attitude towards early diagnosis, diagnostic procedures, resources and opinion on present and future treatment options. Chi‐square tests were carried out to analyze differences among countries. Result: 343 GPs completed the survey. In total, 74% of GPs indicated that they considered an early diagnosis of value. However, only 44% of GPs felt confident in handling the diagnostic procedures for very early dementia and MCI. Currently available pharmacological treatments were mostly regarded as having low benefit, while 68% considered non‐pharmacological treatment options as "beneficial and not sufficiently available". There were country‐specific differences in the GPs' perception of monetary resources (X2(4)=117.26, p <.001) and time (X2(4)=14.84, p >.01) available for the patient. Conclusion: Our findings provide an up‐to‐date overview on GPs' opinion towards early and pre‐dementia diagnosis in five European countries. We show that the majority of GPs considers an early diagnosis beneficial, yet they are faced with country‐specific challenges that can contribute to delayed or missed diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sex influences neurodegeneration, but it has been poorly investigated in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We investigated sex differences in brain atrophy in DLB using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)., Methods: We included 436 patients from the European-DLB consortium and the Mayo Clinic. Sex differences and sex-by-age interactions were assessed through visual atrophy rating scales (n = 327; 73 ± 8 years, 62% males) and automated estimations of regional gray matter volume and cortical thickness (n = 165; 69 ± 9 years, 72% males)., Results: We found a higher likelihood of frontal atrophy and smaller volumes in six cortical regions in males and thinner olfactory cortices in females. There were significant sex-by-age interactions in volume (six regions) and cortical thickness (seven regions) across the entire cortex., Discussion: We demonstrate that males have more widespread cortical atrophy at younger ages, but differences tend to disappear with increasing age, with males and females converging around the age of 75., Highlights: Male DLB patients had higher odds for frontal atrophy on radiological visual rating scales. Male DLB patients displayed a widespread pattern of cortical gray matter alterations on automated methods. Sex differences in gray matter measures in DLB tended to disappear with increasing age., (© 2023 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Background: In recent years, neuroimaging with deep learning (DL) algorithms have made remarkable advances in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders. However, applying DL in different medical domains is usually challenged by lack of labeled data. To address this challenge, transfer learning (TL) has been applied to use state-of-the-art convolution neural networks pre-trained on natural images. Yet, there are differences in characteristics between medical and natural images, also image classification and targeted medical diagnosis tasks. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of specialized and TL in the classification of neurodegenerative disorders using 3D volumes of 18F-FDG-PET brain scans., Results: Results show that TL models are suboptimal for classification of neurodegenerative disorders, especially when the objective is to separate more than two disorders. Additionally, specialized CNN model provides better interpretations of predicted diagnosis., Conclusions: TL can indeed lead to superior performance on binary classification in timely and data efficient manner, yet for detecting more than a single disorder, TL models do not perform well. Additionally, custom 3D model performs comparably to TL models for binary classification, and interestingly perform better for diagnosis of multiple disorders. The results confirm the superiority of the custom 3D-CNN in providing better explainable model compared to TL adopted ones., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Introduction: The Models of Patient Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease (MOPEAD) project was conceived to explore innovative complementary strategies to uncover hidden prodromal and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia cases and to raise awareness both in the general public and among health professionals about the importance of early diagnosis., Methods: Four different strategies or RUNs were used: (a) a web-based (WB) prescreening tool, (2) an open house initiative (OHI), (3) a primary care-based protocol for early detection of cognitive decline (PC), and (4) a tertiary care-based pre-screening at diabetologist clinics (DC)., Results: A total of 1129 patients at high risk of having prodromal AD or dementia were identified of 2847 pre-screened individuals (39.7%). The corresponding proportion for the different initiatives were 36.8% (WB), 35.6% (OHI), 44.4% (PC), and 58.3% (DC)., Conclusion: These four complementary pre-screening strategies were useful for identifying individuals at high risk of having prodromal or mild AD., (© 2021 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Importance: Plasma phosphorylated tau (p-tau) has proven to be an accurate biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD) pathologic characteristics, offering a less expensive and less invasive alternative to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography biomarkers for amyloid-β and tau. Alzheimer disease comorbid pathologic characteristics are common and are associated with more rapid cognitive decline in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB); therefore, it is anticipated that plasma p-tau concentrations may have utility in assessing cognitive impairment in individuals with this disorder., Objective: To measure the concentrations of plasma p-tau (p-tau181 and p-tau231) and evaluate their associations with cognitive decline in individuals with probable DLB., Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter longitudinal cohort study included participants from the European-DLB (E-DLB) Consortium cohort enrolled at 10 centers with harmonized diagnostic procedures from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2020, with up to 5 years of follow-up. A total of 1122 participants with plasma samples were available. Participants with acute delirium or terminal illness and patients with other previous major psychiatric or neurologic disorders were excluded, leaving a cohort of 987 clinically diagnosed participants with probable DLB (n = 371), Parkinson disease (n = 204), AD (n = 207), as well as healthy controls (HCs) (n = 205)., Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was plasma p-tau181 and p-tau231 levels measured with in-house single molecule array assays. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to measure cognition., Results: Among this cohort of 987 patients (512 men [51.9%]; mean [SD] age, 70.0 [8.8] years), patients with DLB did not differ significantly regarding age, sex, or years of education from those in the AD group, but the DLB group was older than the HC group and included more men than the AD and HC groups. Baseline concentrations of plasma p-tau181 and p-tau231 in patients with DLB were significantly higher than those in the HC group but lower than in the AD group and similar to the Parkinson disease group. Higher plasma concentrations of both p-tau markers were found in a subgroup of patients with DLB with abnormal CSF amyloid-β42 levels compared with those with normal levels (difference in the groups in p-tau181, -3.61 pg/mL; 95% CI, -5.43 to -1.79 pg/mL; P = .049; difference in the groups in p-tau231, -2.51 pg/mL; 95% CI, -3.63 to -1.39 pg/mL; P = .02). There was no difference between p-tau181 level and p-tau231 level across confirmed AD pathologic characteristcs based on reduced Aβ42 level in CSF in individuals with DLB. In DLB, a significant association was found between higher plasma p-tau181 and p-tau231 levels and lower MMSE scores at baseline (for p-tau181, -0.092 MMSE points; 95% CI, -0.12 to -0.06 MMSE points; P = .001; for p-tau231, -0.16 MMSE points; 95% CI, -0.21 to -0.12 MMSE points; P < .001), as well as more rapid MMSE decline over time. Plasma p-tau181 level was associated with a decrease of -0.094 MMSE points per year (95% CI, -0.144 to -0.052 MMSE points; P = .02), whereas plasma p-tau231 level was associated with an annual decrease of -0.130 MMSE points (95% CI, -0.201 to -0.071 MMSE points; P = .02), after adjusting for sex and age., Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that plasma p-tau181 and p-tau231 levels may be used as cost-effective and accessible biomarkers to assess cognitive decline in individuals with DLB.

Background: Prognostic studies in the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD) mainly predicted time to dementia. However, it is questionable whether onset of dementia is the most relevant outcome along the AD disease trajectory from the perspective of patients and their care partners. Therefore, we aimed to identify the most relevant outcomes from the viewpoint of patients and care partners., Methods: We used a two-step, mixed-methods approach. As a first step we conducted four focus groups in the Netherlands to elicit a comprehensive list of outcomes considered important by patients ( n  = 12) and care partners ( n  = 14) in the prognosis of AD. The focus groups resulted in a list of 59 items, divided into five categories. Next, in an online European survey, we asked participants ( n  = 232; 99 patients, 133 care partners) to rate the importance of all 59 items (5-point Likert scale). As participants were likely to rate a large number of outcomes as "important" (4) or "very important" (5), we subsequently asked them to select the three items they considered most important., Results: The top-10 lists of items most frequently mentioned as "most important" by patients and care partners were merged into one core outcome list, comprising 13 items. Both patients and care partners selected outcomes from the category "cognition" most often, followed by items in the categories "functioning and dependency" and "physical health." No items from the category "behavior and neuropsychiatry" and "social environment" ended up in our core list of relevant outcomes., Conclusion: We identified a core list of outcomes relevant to patients and care partner, and found that prognostic information related to cognitive decline, dependency, and physical health are considered most relevant by both patients and their care partners., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2021 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Introduction: General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in early identification of dementia, yet diagnosis is often missed or delayed in primary care. As part of the multinational Models of Patient Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease project, we assess GPs' attitude toward early and pre-dementia diagnosis of AD and explore barriers to early diagnosis., Methods: Our survey covered general attitude toward early diagnosis, diagnostic procedures, resources, and opinion on present and future treatment options across five European countries., Results: In total 343 GPs completed the survey; 74% of GPs indicated that an early diagnosis is valuable. There were country-specific differences in GPs' perceptions of reimbursement and time available for the patient. If a drug were available to slow down the progression of AD, 59% of the GPs would change their implementation of early diagnosis., Discussion: Our findings provide insight into GPs' attitudes by exploring differences in perception and management of early diagnosis., Competing Interests: Laura Campo is a full‐time employee of Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A. and shareholder of Eli Lilly. Anders Wimo works as a consultant for Biogen and has received a research grant from MSD outside of this study. The other authors report no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article., (© 2020 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Quantitative EEG (QEEG) has demonstrated good discriminative capacity for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) diagnosis as compared to Alzheimer's disease (AD) with a predictive value of 100% in a single cohort study. EEG in DLB was characterized by a dominant frequency (DF) in pre-alpha (5.5-7.5 Hz), theta, or delta bands and DF variability (DFV) >1.2 Hz, frequency prevalence (FP) pre-alpha in >40% and FP alpha in <32% of the epochs. To validate the aforementioned QEEG findings in independent cohorts of clinically diagnosed DLB versus AD patients, we analyzed EEG traces of 79 DLB and 133 AD patients (MMSE >20) collected from four European Centers. EEG traces from 19 scalp derivations were acquired as at least 10 min continuous signals and epoched in off-setting as series of 2-second-long epochs, subsequently processed by Fast Fourier Transform (frequency resolution 0.5 Hz). DLB patients showed EEG specific abnormalities in posterior derivations characterized by DF <8 Hz FP pre-alpha >50%, FP alpha <25%. DFV was >0.5 Hz. AD patients displayed stable alpha DF, DFV <0.5 Hz, FP pre-alpha <30%, and FP alpha >55%. DLB and AD differed for DF (p < 10-6), DFV (p < 0.05), FP pre-alpha (p < 10-12) and FP alpha (p < 10-12). Discriminant analysis detected specific cut-offs for every EEG mathematical descriptor; DF = 8, DFV = 2.2 Hz, FP pre-alpha=33%, FP alpha = 41% for posterior derivations. If at least one of the cut-off values was met, the percentage of DLB and AD patients correctly classified was 90% and 64%, respectively. The findings in this multicenter study support the validity of QEEG analysis as a tool for diagnosis in DLB patients.