Dementia Flashcards
What is Dementia?
acquired, chronic, and progressive cognitive impairment, sufficient to impair ADLs
What is BPSD?
Behaviour and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia
What is the epidemiology of dementia?
o <65yo = early-onset dementia
o 5-10% population over 65yo; 20% population over 80yo
o Alzheimer’s disease (70% dementia) > Vascular Dementia (VD) > Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB)
What are the symptoms of BPSD?
1) Mood changes
2) Abnormal behaviour
3) Hallucinations/delusions
What are the general signs of dementia?
Forgetfulness
Disorientation to time, place and person (wandering, delusions, calling out, sleep disturbance, hallucination and inappropriate behaviour)
What are the MMSE score boundaries?
24-30 – no impairment
18-23 – mild cognitive impairment
<18 – severe cognitive impairment
What are the screening tools for cognitive assessment?
AMTS (score <7 suggests cognitive impairment)
GPCOG (GP Assessment of Cognition)
Which detailed screening tests can you use for dementia?
Addenbrooke’s (ACE-R), MMSE, MoCA
MMSE = 30 questions [old, not widely used]
ACE-R = 100 questions
Which bloods might you do?
TFTs LFTs U/Es + Dipstick HbA1c Vitamin B12 and folate
What are the 4 more common types of dementia?
Alzheimer’s
Vascular
Lewy Body
Frontotemporal
What tests would you do for the 4 types of dementia?
Alzheimer’s: FDG-PET, CSF, MRI (grey matter atrophy, wide ventricles & sulci, temporal lobe atrophy)
Vascular: ECG (AF with emboli), MRI/CT
Lewy Body: 123I-FP-CIP SPECT (DaTScan; a tracer 123I-FP-CIP used in Single Photon Emission CT), I-MIBG
Frontotemporal: FDG-PET, perfusion SPECT, MRI (frontal lobe shrinkage)
What happens at the memory assessment clinic?
Take a collateral history and check bloods
Risk assess the patient
Cognitive assessment – MMSE
Brain scan (check organic pathology)
Which assessments may you use to differentiate delirium from dementia?
Confusion Assessment Method (CAM)
Observational Scale of Level of Arousal (OSLA)
What questions do you ask on the AMTS?
What's the time What year are we in How old are you (42 west street) Where are you now Name two people here What is your DoB When did WW2 end Who is our current prime minister Count backwards from 20 to 1 Recall (42 west street)
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
The most common type (70%) of dementia; steady progressive cognitive decline
What is the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease?
Amyloid plaques
Tau tangles
Inflammation
What is the normal physiology of Amyloid protein?
- APP cleaved by a-secretase
- sAPPa released and the C83 fragment remains
- C83 is then digested by a-secretase
- Products are then removed
What is the normal physiology of Tau?
Tau protein is a soluble protein present in axons
Tau important for assembly and stability of microtubules
What is the normal physiology of Inflammation in the brain?
Microglial cells are specialist CNS macrophages
What is the pathophysiology of amyloid?
- APP cleaved by b-secretase
- sAPPb released and the C99 fragment remains
- C99 is digested by b-secretase releasing b-amyloid (Ab) protein
- Ab protein forms the toxic aggregates
What is the pathophysiology of Tau?
- Hyperphosphorylated tau is insoluble -> self-aggregates
- The self-aggregates form neurofibrillary tangles (neurotoxic)
- The tangles result ultimately in microtubule instability and neurotoxic damage to neurones
What is the pathophysiology of Inflammation in the brain?
- Increased inflammatory mediators & cytotoxic proteins
- Increased phagocytosis
- Decreased levels of neuroprotective proteins