Irreversible loss of cognition? A caveat.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L Liss.
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The EEG is frequently normal when early dementia is clinically suspected. The presence or absence of occipital driving with intermittent photic stimulation is not helpful in detecting cerebral pathology, but quantitation of photic driving was shown to distinguish between dementia and depression in geriatric patients. We quantified photic driving in twenty clinically demented patients without diffuse or focal EEG abnormality, and compared this in 20 age-matched normal controls. Intermittent stimulation at odd-numbered frequencies between 1 and 31 Hz was carried out. The product of frequency of stimulation and duration of driving response was determined, and the incidence of absent, subharmonic and supraharmonic photic driving was determined. The quantitative measure of frequency times following duration was significantly greater in the nondemented individuals than in demented patients with normal EEGs. More nondemented individuals demonstrated supraharmonic and subharmonic responses than did demented patients. The range of normal variability in persistence, duration, and symmetry of photic driving is great, and caution in determining abnormality on this basis is appropriate. Subtle but measurable changes in photic driving may occur early in dementing illnesses, however.
The activities of monoacylglycerol and diacylglycerol lipases were 6 to 8 times higher in plasma membrane and synaptosomal plasma membrane fractions of nucleus basalis from patients with Alzheimer's disease than in those membranes from normal human brains. Membranes from the hippocampus region of Alzheimer-affected brains also showed consistently higher activities of monoacylglycerol and diacylglycerol lipases than those from control brains. These results indicate a stimulation of lipolytic enzymes in nucleus basalis and hippocampus regions in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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The present investigation involved an examination of susceptibility to visual masking of older adults displaying evidence of Alzheimer's disease and healthy, cognitively intact older adults. Results indicated that the cognitively impaired group was more susceptible to the perceptual interference of a visual mask than was the cognitively intact group. In addition, the impaired group was found to be particularly susceptible to masking by a visual pattern (which had similar figural characteristics to target stimuli) as compared to masking by random noise (which had figural characteristics unrelated to the target). Finally, susceptibility to masking was found to be negatively correlated with performance on the Information subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and with rated level of cognitive functioning. It was concluded that this pattern of results represents an acceleration of changes in perceptual processing typically associated with normal human aging.
Down's syndrome (DS) has been suggested as a high-risk condition for Dementia Alzheimer's type (DAT). In the present study, neuropsychological variables were assessed in 165 DS subjects and 163 matched mentally retarded controls. Overall, DS subjects had lower scores for orientation, digit span, visual memory, object-naming, and general knowledge, as well as more "released" reflexes. Impairments were most evident in DS subjects greater than 50 years old. These findings provide further support for an association between aging and DAT in Down's syndrome. Methodological issues and areas for future research are discussed.
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Down's syndrome residents were found to have significantly greater impairment on measures of orientation, attention span, digit span recall, visual memory, object identification and praxis, and were more likely to have pathological released reflexes than age and IQ matched controls. Neuropsychiatric status tended to worsen with advancing age in Down's syndrome, but not in controls. Forty-five percent of DS individuals age 45 or older had a full syndrome of dementia, compared to only 5% of controls. Although further research is necessary, particularly employing larger samples and more detailed medical screening, these results support the association of dementia Alzheimer type with Down's syndrome.
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A sclerosing angioma in the frontal cortex of a 40 year old woman produced local pressure, with resulting alteration of the blood-brain barrier. In the narrow cortical zone affected by chronic pressure, the level of aluminum was significantly elevated; and all neurons had neurofibrillary tangles of the Alzheimer type.
Human fibroblasts and cells cultured from a glioblastoma multiforme and and oligodendroglioma were grown in standard tissue culture medium and in a medium in which D-valine was substituted for L-valine (DVM). Growth of all three types of cells was inhibited in DVM. Morphological changes of cells cultured in DVM also occurred: many fibroblasts became stellate-shaped and the oligodendroglioma cells had fewer processes. These findings indicate that DVM can not be used to decrease fibroblastic contamination in cultures of human gliomas without altering the morphological and growth characteristics of the neoplastic cells.
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A malignant lymphoproliferative disease with acute clinical course and selective clinical CNS involvement is described. The metastatic lesions in the brain are compared with a primary microglioma of the brain.