scholarly journals Role of nurses in addressing modifiable risk factors for early Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 460-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Hope

A multidisciplinary advisory group of health professionals involved in dementia care assessed the current evidence base regarding modifiable risk factors (MRFs) for early Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Based on evidence from the published literature and clinical experience, MRFs in four areas were identified where there is evidence to support interventions that may help delay cognitive decline or reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease: medical (eg cardiovascular risk factors), psychosocial (eg depression, anxiety, social isolation), lifestyle (eg lack of physical activity, smoking) and nutrition (eg poor diet, lack of micronutrients). Practical guidance on how health professionals, but in particular nurses, may actively seek to address these MRFs in clinical practice was also developed. Nurses are at the forefront of patient care and, as such, are ideally placed to offer advice to patients that may proactively help mitigate the risks of cognitive decline and the development of Alzheimer's disease.

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 846-846
Author(s):  
J Osuna ◽  
K Thomas ◽  
E Edmonds ◽  
K Bangen ◽  
A Weigand ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Early identification of those at risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is critical for early intervention. Recent work shows that subtle cognitive decline (SCD), operationally-defined using sensitive neuropsychological scores, predicts progression to MCI/AD and is associated with AD biomarkers. We aimed to determine whether SCD adds unique value in predicting progression to MCI/AD above and beyond other AD risk factors. Method 547 cognitively unimpaired participants from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (359 without SCD; 188 with SCD) underwent neuropsychological testing and lumbar puncture. Participants were classified as SCD if they performed >1 SD below the demographically-adjusted mean on 1) two neuropsychological total scores in different cognitive domains, or 2) two memory test process scores (e.g., intrusion errors), or 3) one total score and one process score. Cox regressions examined whether SCD status predicted progression to MCI and AD within 5 years after adjusting for age, education, sex, MMSE, depressive symptoms, ischemia risk, apolipoprotein E genotype, and AD biomarker “positivity” based on the cerebrospinal fluid phosphorylated tau-to-β-amyloid ratio. Results SCD status predicted progression to MCI (HR = 2.74, 95% CI = 2.07-3.63, p < .001) and AD (HR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.04-4.65, p = .04) within 5 years, even after including known AD risk factors in the model. Conclusion SCD conveys a 2-3 fold increased risk of progression to MCI/AD and is a unique predictor above and beyond risk factors that are commonly used in preclinical AD research. These findings support our novel SCD criteria as a cost-effective and non-invasive method for identifying those at risk for future cognitive decline.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyung-Ji Kim ◽  
Jae-Hong Lee ◽  
E-nae Cheong ◽  
Sung-Eun Chung ◽  
Sungyang Jo ◽  
...  

Background: Amyloid PET allows for the assessment of amyloid β status in the brain, distinguishing true Alzheimer’s disease from Alzheimer’s disease-mimicking conditions. Around 15–20% of patients with clinically probable Alzheimer’s disease have been found to have no significant Alzheimer’s pathology on amyloid PET. However, a limited number of studies had been conducted this subpopulation in terms of clinical progression. Objective: We investigated the risk factors that could affect the progression to dementia in patients with amyloid-negative amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: This study was a single-institutional, retrospective cohort study of patients over the age of 50 with amyloidnegative amnestic MCI who visited the memory clinic of Asan Medical Center with a follow-up period of more than 36 months. All participants underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), detailed neuropsychological testing, and fluorine-18[F18]-florbetaben amyloid PET. Results: During the follow-up period, 39 of 107 patients progressed to dementia from amnestic MCI. In comparison with the stationary group, the progressed group had a more severe impairment in verbal and visual episodic memory function and hippocampal atrophy, which showed an Alzheimer’s disease-like pattern despite the lack of evidence for significant Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Voxel-based morphometric MRI analysis revealed that the progressed group had a reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral cerebellar cortices, right temporal cortex, and bilateral insular cortices. Conclusion: Considering the lack of evidence of amyloid pathology, clinical progression of these subpopulation may be caused by other neuropathologies such as TDP-43, abnormal tau or alpha synuclein that lead to neurodegeneration independent of amyloid-driven pathway. Further prospective studies incorporating biomarkers of Alzheimer’s diseasemimicking dementia are warranted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiri Cerman ◽  
Ross Andel ◽  
Jan Laczo ◽  
Martin Vyhnalek ◽  
Zuzana Nedelska ◽  
...  

Background: Great effort has been put into developing simple and feasible tools capable to detect Alzheimer's disease (AD) in its early clinical stage. Spatial navigation impairment occurs very early in AD and is detectable even in the stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Objective: The aim was to describe the frequency of self-reported spatial navigation complaints in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), amnestic and non-amnestic MCI (aMCI, naMCI) and AD dementia and to assess whether a simple questionnaire based on these complaints may be used to detect early AD. Method: In total 184 subjects: patients with aMCI (n=61), naMCI (n=27), SCD (n=63), dementia due to AD (n=20) and normal controls (n=13) were recruited. The subjects underwent neuropsychological examination and were administered a questionnaire addressing spatial navigation complaints. Responses to the 15 items questionnaire were scaled into four categories (no, minor, moderate and major complaints). Results: 55% of patients with aMCI, 64% with naMCI, 68% with SCD and 72% with AD complained about their spatial navigation. 38-61% of these complaints were moderate or major. Only 33% normal controls expressed complaints and none was ranked as moderate or major. The SCD, aMCI and AD dementia patients were more likely to express complaints than normal controls (p's<0.050) after adjusting for age, education, sex, depressive symptoms (OR for SCD=4.00, aMCI=3.90, AD dementia=7.02) or anxiety (OR for SCD=3.59, aMCI=3.64, AD dementia=6.41). Conclusion: Spatial navigation complaints are a frequent symptom not only in AD, but also in SCD and aMCI and can potentially be detected by a simple and inexpensive questionnaire.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Valencia ◽  
Johann Lehrner

Summary Background Visuo-Constructive functions have considerable potential for the early diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease. Objectives Using the Vienna Visuo-Constructional Test 3.0 (VVT 3.0), we measured visuo-constructive functions in subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and healthy controls to determine whether VVT performance can be used to distinguish these groups. Materials and methods Data of 671 participants was analyzed comparing scores across diagnostic groups and exploring associations with relevant clinical variables. Predictive validity was assessed using Receiver Operator Characteristic curves and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results We found significant differences between AD and the other groups. Identification of cases suffering from visuo-constructive impairment was possible using VVT scores, but these did not permit classification into diagnostic subgroups. Conclusions In summary, VVT scores are useful indicators for visuo-constructive impairment but face challenges when attempting to discriminate between several diagnostic groups.


Neurology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 1034-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Storandt ◽  
E. A. Grant ◽  
J. P. Miller ◽  
J. C. Morris

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1105-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Yuruyen ◽  
Fundan Engin Akcan ◽  
Gizem Cetiner Batun ◽  
Gozde Gultekin ◽  
Mesut Toprak ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adalberto Studart Neto ◽  
Ricardo Nitrini

ABSTRACT Background: Mild cognitive impairment is considered as the first clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD), when the individual exhibits below performance on standardized neuropsychological tests. However, some subjects before having a lower performance on cognitive assessments already have a subjective memory complaint. Objective: A review about subjective cognitive decline, the association with AD biomarkers and risk of conversion to dementia. Methods: We performed a comprehensive non-systematic review on PubMed. The keywords used in the search were terms related to subjective cognitive decline. Results: Subjective cognitive decline is characterized by self-experience of deterioration in cognitive performance not detected objectively through formal neuropsychological testing. However, various terms and definitions have been used in the literature and the lack of a widely accepted concept hampers comparison of studies. Epidemiological data have shown that individuals with subjective cognitive decline are at increased risk of progression to AD dementia. In addition, there is evidence that this group has a higher prevalence of positive biomarkers for amyloidosis and neurodegeneration. However, Alzheimer's disease is not the only cause of subjective cognitive decline and various other conditions can be associated with subjective memory complaints, such as psychiatric disorders or normal aging. The features suggestive of a neurodegenerative disorder are: onset of decline within the last five years, age at onset above 60 years, associated concerns about decline and confirmation by an informant. Conclusion: These findings support the idea that subjective cognitive complaints may be an early clinical marker that precedes mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease.


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