| 1. |
- Andin, Ulla, et al.
(författare)
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) with and without white matter pathology-clinical identification of concurrent cardiovascular disorders.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-6976 .- 0167-4943. ; 44, s. 277-286
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Clinical vascular features, either as manifest vascular disease or as cardiovascular risk factors were compared in AD with and without neuropathological white matter disease (WMD). The aim of the study was to investigate whether the presence of WMD and the severity of either AD pathology or WMD were associated with different cardiovascular profiles. A total of 44 AD cases were retrospectively studied. All the cases were neuropathologically diagnosed as AD with WMD (n = 22) and as AD without WMD (n = 22), respectively. The patients' medical records were studied with regard to their medical history and to somatic and neurological findings including arrhythmia, congestive heart failure, angina, myocardial infarctions, signs of TIA/stroke, diabetes mellitus, and blood pressure abnormalities, such as hypertension and orthostatic hypotension. In AD-WMD, hypertension, orthostatic hypotension as well as dizziness/unsteadiness were significantly more common than in AD without WMD. Cardiovascular symptoms were more frequent in AD-WMD than in the other group, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Hypothetically, abnormal and unstable blood pressure levels underlie recurrent cerebral hypoperfusion, which may in turn leave room for the development of WMD. Furthermore, dizziness/unsteadiness may be a symptom reflecting the presence of WMD. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Brunnström, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Cause of death in patients with dementia disorders.
- 2009
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Ingår i: European Journal of Neurology. - : Wiley. - 1351-5101 .- 1468-1331. ; 16, s. 488-492
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Investigations on cause of death may provide valuable information about life expectancy and on conditions of terminal dementia care, which perhaps can be ameliorated. Methods: The autopsy reports were studied on all patients (n = 524; 55.3% females; median age 80 years) with a clinically and neuropathologically diagnosed dementia disorder who underwent a complete autopsy at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, during 1974-2004. Results: The two most common causes of death were bronchopneumonia (38.4%) and ischaemic heart disease (23.1%), whilst neoplastic diseases were uncommon (3.8%). In a general population of elderly studied for comparison, bronchopneumonia accounted for 2.8%, ischaemic heart disease for 22.0%, and neoplasm for 21.3% of the deaths. Amongst the demented patients, circulatory and respiratory system diseases were the causes of death in 23.2% and 55.5% of the Alzheimer patients, respectively, whilst the corresponding figures were 54.8% and 33.1% for the patients with vascular dementia. Conclusions: In patients with dementia, pneumonia as the immediate cause of death may reflect a terminal stage in which patient care and feeding is difficult to manage well. Knowledge about what actually causes death is of value in the terminal care of patients with dementia disorders.
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| 3. |
- Brunnström, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Clinicopathological concordance in dementia diagnostics.
- 2009
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Ingår i: The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. - 1545-7214. ; 17:8, s. 664-670
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Accurate distinction between dementia subtypes is important for patient care and pharmacological treatment. Continuing systematic comparisons of clinical and neuropathological dementia diagnoses may provide a basis for further improvement of the diagnostic procedure. The purpose of this study was to investigate concordance between clinical dementia diagnosis and neuropathological findings in the specialized dementia care. METHODS: Inclusion required 1) a clinical dementia disorder diagnosed at a hospital-based memory clinic and 2) a neuropathological examination within the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, during the years 1996-2006. A total of 176 consecutive patients fulfilled the criteria and were thus included. Clinical dementia diagnoses were obtained from the medical records and compared with the neuropathological findings. RESULTS: The clinical and pathological dementia diagnoses were in full accordance in 86 (49%) of the patients (kappa 0.37). In an additional 24 (14%) cases, the clinical diagnosis corresponded with some but not all pathological components judged to contribute to the dementia disorder. Of the patients with clinical Alzheimer disease, 84% (46/55) had a significant Alzheimer component with or without other significant pathology at neuropathological examination. The corresponding figure for vascular dementia (VaD) was 59% (24/41), for frontotemporal dementia 74% (20/27), for combined Alzheimer and VaD 25% (4/16), and for dementia with Lewy bodies 67% (6/9). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that clinical dementia diagnoses do not always correspond with neuropathological changes. It stresses the importance of neuropathological examination in research and in daily clinical practice.
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| 4. |
- Brunnström, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Prevalence of dementia subtypes: A 30-year retrospective survey of neuropathological reports.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-6976 .- 0167-4943. ; Aug 7, s. 146-149
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated the distribution of neuropathologically defined dementia subtypes among individuals with dementia disorder. The neuropathological reports were studied on all patients (n=524; 55.3% females; median age 80, range 39-102 years) with clinically diagnosed dementia disorder who underwent complete autopsy including neuropathological examination within the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, during the years 1974-2004. The neuropathological diagnosis was Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 42.0% of the cases, vascular dementia (VaD) in 23.7%, dementia of combined Alzheimer and vascular pathology in 21.6%, and frontotemporal dementia in 4.0% of the patients. The remaining 8.8% of the patients had other dementia disorders, including combinations other than combined Alzheimer and vascular pathology. The registered prevalence of dementia subtypes depends on many variables, including referral habits, clinical and neuropathological judgments and diagnostic traditions, all of these variables potentially changing over time. This, however, does not seem to obscure the delineation of the major dementia subgroups. In this material of 30 years from Lund in the south of Sweden, AD by far dominated among dementia subtypes, while cerebrovascular pathology corresponded with the dementia disorder, either entirely or partly, in almost half of the demented patients.
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| 5. |
- El-Sayed, Najib M., et al.
(författare)
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The genome sequence of Trypanosoma cruzi, etiologic agent of Chagas disease.
- 2005
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1095-9203 .- 0036-8075. ; 309:5733, s. 409-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Whole-genome sequencing of the protozoan pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi revealed that the diploid genome contains a predicted 22,570 proteins encoded by genes, of which 12,570 represent allelic pairs. Over 50% of the genome consists of repeated sequences, such as retrotransposons and genes for large families of surface molecules, which include trans-sialidases, mucins, gp63s, and a large novel family (>1300 copies) of mucin-associated surface protein (MASP) genes. Analyses of the T. cruzi, T. brucei, and Leishmania major (Tritryp) genomes imply differences from other eukaryotes in DNA repair and initiation of replication and reflect their unusual mitochondrial DNA. Although the Tritryp lack several classes of signaling molecules, their kinomes contain a large and diverse set of protein kinases and phosphatases; their size and diversity imply previously unknown interactions and regulatory processes, which may be targets for intervention.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Haglund, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cortical microinfarcts as putative substrates of vascular dementia.
- 2006
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Ingår i: International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. - : Wiley. - 1099-1166 .- 0885-6230. ; 21:7, s. 681-687
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and purpose Vascular dementia (VaD) has occasionally been associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), but the prevalence and significance of this counterintuitive relationship are poorly known. Therefore, we investigated the presence and characteristics of CAA in brains of VaD cases. Methods We examined temporal and parietal regions of the cerebral cortex of 26 consecutive VaD cases from the Lund Longitudinal Dementia Study. We carried out immunohistochemistry and routine stainings, determined Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotypes, and obtained clinical characteristics on the studied group for retrospective analysis. Results CAA was marked in eight out of 26 cases, and correlated strongly with the presence of cortical microinfarcts, both in the temporal lobe and in the parietal lobe. Based on comparisons with eight age-matched VaD cases without CAA, the clinical records suggested that VaD cases with CAA as a group exhibited less pronounced neurological symptoms. A clear contribution of the ApoE genotype could not be identified. Conclusions Based on a combination of the clinical and pathological data, we suggest that microinfarcts in the cerebral cortex associated with severe CAA may be the primary pathological substrate in a significant proportion of VaD cases. Future studies should be undertaken to confirm or dismiss the hypothesis that these cases exhibit a different symptom profile than VaD cases without CAA. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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| 9. |
- Haglund, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Differential deposition of amyloid beta peptides in cerebral amyloid angiopathy associated with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Acta Neuropathologica. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-0533 .- 0001-6322. ; 111:5, s. 430-435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) caused by deposition of amyloid beta (A beta) peptides in the cerebrovasculature, involves degeneration of normal vascular components and increases the risk of infarction and cerebral hemorrhage. Accumulating evidence suggests that sporadic CAA is also a significant contributor to cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. However, the mechanisms by which CAA arises are poorly understood. While neuronal sources of A beta peptides are sufficient to cause CAA in transgenic mice overexpressing the amyloid precursor protein, there is reason to believe that in aging man, vascular disease modulates the disease process. To better understand CAA mechanisms in dementia, we assessed the frontal cortex of 62 consecutive cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and mixed dementia (MD) using immunohistochemistry with antibodies to A beta, smooth muscle actin and the carboxyl-terminal peptides to detect A beta(40) and A beta(42). While vascular A beta deposition was invariably associated with smooth muscle degeneration as indicated by absence of smooth muscle cell actin reactivity, VaD/MD cases exhibited markedly more vascular A beta(42) deposits and smooth muscle actin loss compared to AD cases with similar degrees of CAA and A beta(40) deposition. This suggests that distinct mechanisms are responsible for the differential deposition of A beta in CAA associated with AD and that associated with ischemic/cerebrovascular disease. It is plausible that experimental studies on the effects of cerebrovascular disease on A beta production and elimination will yield important clues on the pathogenesis of CAA.
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| 10. |
- Haglund, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Locus ceruleus degeneration is ubiquitous in Alzheimer's disease: possible implications for diagnosis and treatment.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Neuropathology. - : Wiley. - 0919-6544 .- 1440-1789. ; 26:6, s. 528-532
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Degeneration of the locus ceruleus (LC) and decreased cortical levels of norepinephrine are common findings in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their significance is unknown. Because the noradrenergic system is accessible to pharmacological intervention, the role of LC degeneration and noradrenergic dysfunction in the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of AD needs clarification. Hypothetically, loss of noradrenergic innervation could cause microvascular dysfunction and manifest as ischemia. The objectives of this study were to develop a scale for assessment of LC degeneration and to determine whether degeneration of the LC correlates quantitatively with either duration of clinical dementia, overall severity of AD pathology or with measures of ischemic non-focal white matter disease (WMD) in AD. This report is a pathological follow-up of a clinical longitudinal dementia study of 66 consecutive cases of AD without admixture of vascular dementia (VaD) from the Lund Longitudinal Dementia Study, neuropathologically diagnosed between 1990 and 1999. Ten cases of VaD were included for comparative purposes. No correlation between degree of LC degeneration and duration of dementia, AD or WMD severity was found. LC degeneration was significantly more severe in the AD group than in the VaD group. Even though LC degeneration was not associated with WMD or the severity of AD pathology in this AD material, we suggest that clinical studies on the consequences of noradrenergic dysfunction are warranted. Treatment augmenting noradrenergic signaling is available and safe. The marked difference in the level of LC degeneration between AD and VaD cases suggests that LC degeneration could be used as a diagnostic marker of AD.
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