Degenerative Disease/Dementia Flashcards
What are the 5 cognitive domains?
- Memory
- Language
- Visual-Perceptual-Spatial
- Executive Function
- Social Function / behavior
What are the subcomponents of the memory domain?
-
Short term / working
- abmility to maintain material in active form
-
Long term
-
declarative - conscious acquisition, retention & retrieval of knowledge
- episodic- dependent on personal experience
- semantic- factual, non-personal
-
non-declarative - unconscious experience-induced changes in performance
- procedual memory - acquisition of sklls/habits from repeated practice
-
declarative - conscious acquisition, retention & retrieval of knowledge
What is the differential for an acute (minutes) cognitive decline?
delirium
stroke
head injury
What is the differential for as subacute cognitive decline?
- hours/days
- infection/metabolic dereangement
- weeks/months
- mass effect from neoplasm or rapidly progressive dementia
What is the differential for a chronic cognitive decline?
classic neurodegeneration
What is the difference between delirium & dementia?
- delirium is fluctuant
What are the criteria for delirium
- acute change in baseline mental status in 24 hr period that may be fluctuant
- difficulty sustaining attention
- may have altered consciousness OR difficult answering simple quesitons
What is reaplidly progressive dementia?
- weeks to months of progressive cognitive decline
What is the work-up if you suspect a patient has rapidly progressinve dementia?
-
Exclude metabolic/infectious/toxic causes
- TSH, RPR, B1, B12, HIV, Lyme
- Exclude structural cause
- Exclude infection/autoimmunity
-
Exclude seizure
- EEG to exclude seizure activity
You use a MRI, CTA & MRV to look for what specific structural problems?
- MRI brain w/ w/o contrast to exclude carcinomatous process
- CTA to exclude dural arteriovenous fistul
- MRV to exclude venous sinus thrombosis
What are the main cuases of rapidly progressive dementia?
- non-prion neurodegeneration
- prion diseases (jakon-Creutzfeldt disease)
- Antibody-mediated encephalopathies
What is Limbic encephalitis?
It is associated with what other conditions?
Lab findings on lumbar puncture / MRI?
- Autoimmune Encephalopathy - altered sensorium, rapid cognitive decline, altered mood/personality, seizures
- Associated
- autoimmunity
- cancers
- Tests
- lumbar - elevate proteins, elevated IgG index, oligoclonal bands, (+) Ab VGKC or NMDA
- MRI - normla or mesial temporal T2 hypersensitivity
What is the treatment for autoimmune encephalopathy?
Limbic encephalitis
high dose pulse IV steroids, IVIG, PLEX rituximab, cyclophosphamide
The provided MRI is indicative of what condition?
Limbic encephalitis
mesial temporal T2 hyperintensity
What is the cause of Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease?
symptoms?
prognosis?
abnormally shaped, deviant protein (prion)rapidly
progressive dementia with behavioral disturbance, ataxia & eventually myoclonus, visual/cerebellar dysfunction
months - year
What laboratory findings are indicative of Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease?
lumbar puncture: 14-3-3, RT-QUIC (+)
MRI w/ cortical ribboning on diffusion weighted imaging and EEG w/ 1 to 2 Hz periodic sharp wave complex (sensitive/specific)
What is the most common form of human prion disease?
Jakob-Creutzfeldt Disease
The provided MRI is indicative of what condition?
cortical riboning (white along outside)
Jakob-Creutzfeldt Disease
What are the 5 criteria for dementia?
- Interfere with ability to function (work or social)
- Represents a decline from prior levels
- Not explained by delirium or anothe rmedical, neurological or psychiatric disorder
- Cognitive impairment is detected/diagnosed
- Cognitive / bejavioral impairment involveds at least TWO cognitive domains
How can you establish that cognitive impairment in the criteria for dementia?
history from patient & informant
objective cognitive assessment (MMSE, MoCA, etc)
What is mild cognitive impairment?
impairment in one or more cognitive domians but daily function is preserved
border btw cognitive changes related to aging & very early dementia
What is the most common prodromal state of Alzheimer Disease?
mild cognitive impairment
but NOT ALL MCI is early Alzheimer
What are the risk factors for mild cognitive impairment to rapidly progress to Alzheimer?
- apolipoprotein E4
- abnormal tau PET scan
- low CSF aB42
- elevated CSF tau
What is the most preventable cause of dementia?
vascular cognitive impairment
What are the criteria for vasclar cognitive impairment?
- imaging evidence of cerebrovascular disease
- Temporal relationship between a _vascular event & onset of cognitive deficit_s OR clear relationship between severity of / pattern of cognitive impairment & presence of subcortical cerebrovascular disease
- no history of gradually progressive cognitive deficitys before / after stroke to suggest another cognitive disorder
What type of memory is most affected in vascular cognitive impairment?
deficitys in executive function/processing speed > episodic memory
What form of VCI is seen in the provided image?
This is indicative of what type of disease course?
multiple infarcts
step-wise course
What form of VCI is seen in the provided image?
This is indicative of what type of disease course?
Lacunar infarcts & single strategic infarcts
small stokes - likely to impair cognition
What is Binswanger Disease?
nonstroke vascular cognitive impairment caused by subcortical ischemic cerebral small vessel disease