Mimics and Maybes
This reversible cause of dementia initially presents with lower extremity paresthesias and may be caused by metformin, gastrectomy, or pernicious anemia.
What is Vitamin B12 deficiency?
Virchow-Robin spaces are less detectable in patients with Alzheimers, True or False?
This general category of medication should be initiated for patients with dementia and depression.
What are anti-depressants?
What do Tau Proteins aggregate into in Alzheimer's Disease?
Neurofibrillary Tangles
This second most common cause of dementia in the elderly presents on MRI or CT with multiple cortical or subcortical infarcts.
What is vascular dementia?
Name three of the four domains measured by the Folstein test.
What is:
Complex attention (e.g., sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, and processing speed)
Language
Learning and memory (e.g., object naming, word-finding, fluency, grammar, semantics)
Orientation to person, place, and time
This class of medication is used to treat symptoms of Alzheimer's and includes Donepezil, Rivastigmine, and Galantamine.
What are cholinesterase inhibitors?
Hyperphosphorylation
You must first rule out this common condition as a cause of the presenting dementia when diagnosing neurodegenerative disorders.
What is depression aka pseudodementia?
What can GDS be used to diagnose? (be specific)
What is MDD (Major depressive disorder)?
This drug helps prevent excitotoxicity mediated by Ca2+ in Alzheimer's disease.
What is memantine?
What part of the brain do plaques usually form in first?
Hippocampus
This reversible cause of dementia presents with urinary incontinence.
What is normal pressure hydrocephalus?
A 72-year-old woman is brought to her primary care physician due to increasing confusion. Her daughter explains that her mother has grown increasingly impaired and agitated over the past 2 years. She forgets where she puts items, gets lost while driving, and has become suspicious that her grandchildren are stealing from her. Physical examination is normal.
Which of the following is the most likely pathologic finding in this patient?
A. Atrophy of the caudate and putamen
B. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra
C. Enhancing lesions in the temporal lobe
D. Increased serum amyloid A proteins
E. Atrophy of amydala and parahippocampal gyrus
What is E. Atrophy of amydala and parahippocampal gyrus?
This patient presents with increasing confusion, memory deficits, and agitation. She most likely has Alzheimer disease, a chronic, progressive, global decline in multiple cognitive areas. It is the most common cause of dementia in the United States. It initially presents with memory deficits. Over time, language deficits, depression, agitation, apraxia, and agnosia may develop.
This receptor of glutamate plays an important role in memory formation and may be targeted in Alzheimer's drug therapy.
What is the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor?
List three functions of Acetylcholine
Learning, memory, motor control, attention, arousal, modulation of sensory info, regulation of mood
Presenting decades after the initial inciting event, this reversible cause of dementia may present with Argyll Robertson pupils.
What is neurosyphilis?
Name the specific areas of mesial (aka medial) temporal lobe atrophy in patients with Alzheimers.
What is hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and perirhinal cortex?
This interaction between two or more commonly prescribed Alzheimer's drugs causes the total effect of the drugs to be greater than the sum of their individual effects.
What is synergy?
A biopsy of a brain with Alzheimer's will show what histological feature related to neurofibrillary tangles?
Flame-shaped basophilic inclusions around a single nucleus