Wk 31 - Alzheimer's disease 1 Flashcards
What was the first symptoms when alzheimer’s was first discovered?
- Memory impairment
- Hallucinations
- Executive dysfunction
What is dementia?
Progressive clinical syndrome of deteriorating mental function sig enough to interfere w/ activities of daily living
What does dementia affect?
- Cognitive domain (mem, thinking, language, judgement)
- Social behaviour
For a diagnosis of dementia, what must be present?
Impairment in 2 cognitive domain leading to sig functional decline that can’t be explained by another disorder or adverse effect of med
Define early onset dementia
Dementia that develops before 65
Define mild cognitive impairment
Cognitive impairment that doesn’t fulfil diagnostic criteria for dementia bc only 1 cognitive domain affected
What are the pathological features of alzheimer’s disease?
- Atrophy of cerebral cortex
- Formation of amyloid plaques + neurofibrillary tangles
- Acetylcholine prod in affected neurons red
What is vascular dementia?
- Result of red blood supply to brain
- Caused by: variety of cerebrovascular disorder
- Small vessel disease common in older people w/ AD
What is dementia with Lewy bodies?
- 2nd most common type of degenerative dementia
- Cause: Cortical + subcortical lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of protein inside nerve cells)
What is frontotemporal dementia?
- Progressive degeneration of frontal + temporal lobes
- Insidious onset + gradual progression - middle age
Give examples of rarer causes of dementia
- PD
- Progressive supranuclear palsy
- Huntington disease
- Prion
- Benign tumours
- Vit deficiencies (B12 + thiamine)
- Infections (HIV + syphilis)
What is alzheimer’s disease?
Irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory + thinking skills
What does AD disrupt in neurones?
- Communication
- Metabolism
- Repair
Which genes affect younger people?
- Amyloid precursor protein gene (fault on Csome 21)
- Presenilin genes: PSEN-1 (fault on 14) + PSEN-2 (fault on 1)
- Develop 30s-40s
Which gene affects older people?
- Apolipoprotein E: APOE2, 3 + 4
- Affects over 65
