Dementia Flashcards
What is dementia?
Chronic progressive disorder of mental processes due to brain injury/disease.
Does the area of the brain affected have an effect on the presentation?
Yes.
How do frontal lobe (anterior) problems normally present?
Behavioural changes.
- impaired judgement, abstract reasoning, incontinence
- e.g. hydrocephalus
How do problems with the medial temporal lobe/hippocampus/amygdala/limbic system normally present?
Memory disorder and hallucinations.
-e.g. Alzheimer’s
How do temporal neocortex problems normally present?
Receptive dyshphasia and automatisms.
-e.g. Alzheimer’s
How do occipital lobe problems normally present?
Failure of visual sensory systems.
How do parietal lobe problems normally present?
- Visuospatial impairment
- Decreased integration of sensory inputs (agnosia, apraxia)
Give some examples of neurodegenerative dementias. (4)
- Alzheimer’s
- Lewy body dementia
- Frontotemporal
- Huntington’s
What is Lewy Body dementia?
Deposition of proteins (Lewy bodies) in brain cells in the brainstem/cortex.
What is Hungtington’s?
Movement disorder in which nerve cells degenerate/waste away.
-More frontal
What is vascular dementia?
Dementia cause by a lack of blood supply to the brain.
-e.g. due to small strokes
What effect does treatment have on vascular dementia?
Treatment may reduce the progression of vascular dementia, but not cure it.
What is another name for Prion diseases?
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.
What are Prion diseases?
Collection of neurodegenerative diseases where pathogens»_space; abnormal folding of proteins.
-often accompanied by triphasic EEG waves
Give an example of a Prion disease.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
Are Prion diseases treatable?
No, and they have rapid progression.
What type of neurodegenerative disease is smoking thought to prevent?
Parkinson’s.
How do subcortical dementias normally present?
Apathetic, forgetful, movement disorders.
-e.g. Parkinson’s
How do cortical dementias normally present?
Higher cortical abnormalities.
- dysphasia, agnosia, aparaxia
- e.g. Alzheimer’s
How can neurodegenerative diseases functionally clasified? (2)
- Dementias (e.g. Alzheimer’s)
- Movement disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s)
How are neurodegenerative diseases classified based on molecular-genetics? (3)
- Tauopathies
- Synucleinopathies
- Ubiquinopathies
What is normal pressure hydrocephalus?
Abnormal build up of CSF in the brain’s ventricles/cavities.
What is the triad of problems that accompanies normal pressure hydrocephalus?
- Dementia
- Gait disturbance
- Urinary incontinence
What are the 2 types of normal pressure hydrocephalus?
- Idiopathic
- Secondary
What are possible causes of normal pressure hydrocephalus?
- Subarachnoid haemorrhage
- Infection (e.g. meningitis)
What is ‘pulvinar sign’ a sign of?
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).
What is VGKC Ab LE?
Limbic encephalitis due to voltage-gated potassium channel antibody.
What are possible symptoms of VGKC Ab LE ?
- Subacute memory loss
- Psychiatric disturbance
- Seizures
- Hyponatraemia
What may be present in the serum/CSF with GKC Ab LE?
- LGI1 subunit
- CASPR2
Who was Auguste Deter?
The first person to be diagnosed with dementia.
Who was Alois Alzheimer?
Doctor who diagnosed Auguste Deter with dementia.
What are possible side effects of using anti-psychotics to treat dementia?
Increased risk of stroke and death.