Biomedical subjects

W L Danziger

Publications and source records attributed to W L Danziger.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1984

Psychometric differentiation of mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

A brief (ten-minute), easily administered battery of four psychological tests was developed to classify successfully 98% of patients with mild dementia of the Alzheimer's type and healthy older persons matched for age, sex, and social position. Only two of 84 persons (one demented, one healthy) were misclassified. The four tests are the logical memory and mental control subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale, Form A of the Trailmaking Test, and word fluency for letters S and P.

Aged↗

PubMed1984

Predictive features in mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Forty-three subjects with mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer type, diagnosed and staged by clinical research criteria, were studied with clinical, psychometric, EEG, visual evoked potential, and CT measures. During the 12 months following entry into the study, 21 subjects progressed to moderate or severe dementia, 21 remained mild, and one was lost to follow-up. Many of the clinical and psychometric measures of impairment were predictive of the progression to moderate or severe dementia. Electrophysiologic and CT measures were not. In a discriminant function analysis, the scores on two measures (the digit symbol subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and an Aphasia Battery) correctly predicted the stage of dementia 1 year later in 95% of the subjects.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1983

Frequency analysis of the resting awake EEG in mild senile dementia of Alzheimer type.

Spontaneous resting electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded from 40 subjects with senile dementia of Alzheimer type (SDAT) and 40 individually matched elderly controls at entry into a longitudinal study of SDAT. All of the demented subjects had only a mild degree of dementia, and all were still living in the community. Several measures of EEG activity were calculated, based upon the power spectra of the EEG samples from left and right occipital-to-vertex derivations. Paired t tests showed significant differences between demented and control group means for measures of theta and beta activity, but not for measures of alpha and delta activity. A significant decrease in the 'average mean frequency' in demented subjects was attributed to the combination of decreased beta and increased theta activity. The earliest changes in the resting EEG in SDAT are increased theta and decreased beta power. These changes are not identical to those reported in normal aging, in which a decrease in alpha activity accompanies the changes in theta and beta.

Aged↗

PubMed1983

Visual evoked potentials in mild senile dementia of Alzheimer type.

Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) to chessboard shift and to flash stimulation were recorded from 40 subjects with senile dementia of Alzheimer type (SDAT) and 40 individually matched control subjects. All of the SDAT subjects had only a mild degree of dementia and were still living in the community. Analysis of variance showed significant differences between demented and control group means for 3 chessboard shift VEP measures, the demented group having longer latency of peaks P3 and N3, and larger amplitude of segment N2-P3. These three are the earliest reported changes in the VEP in Alzheimer disease, since the flash VEPs showed no measure in which the demented and control group means differed significantly.

Aged↗

PubMed1983

Dementia in the elderly: an education model including information, management, and counselling.

The number of elderly people in the United States who have dementia is increasing because there are proportionately more older adults in the total population. Because dementia causes progressive deterioration in memory and reasoning, families of individuals with dementia experience emotional, physical, and economic burdens. It is necessary to educate and counsel healthcare professionals and caregivers to assure appropriate care for the patient with Alzheimer's disease.

Aged↗

PubMed1983

Brain parenchymal density measurements by CT in demented subjects and normal controls.

Parenchymal density measurements of 14 regions of gray and white matter from each cerebral hemisphere were made from CT scans of 25 subjects who had varying degrees of dementia as measured by a global Clinical Dementia Rating, and also from CT scans of 33 normal control subjects. There were few significant differences between the two groups in the mean density value for each of the regions examined, although several individual psychometric tests did correlate with density changes. Moreover, for six regions in the cerebral cortex, and for one region in the thalamus of each hemisphere, we found no significant correlation between the gray-white matter density difference and dementia. There was, however, a loss of the discriminability between the gray and white matter with an increase in the size of the ventricles. These findings may be attributed to the loss of white matter volume.

Aged↗

PubMed1982

Birth order and maternal age effect in dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Birth order and maternal age were unrelated to dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) in a study of 42 probands with clinically diagnosed DAT and 42 age-matched control subjects. Mean birth order in both groups did not differ significantly from the general population. The mean maternal age for the DAT probands was neither significantly different from that for the controls nor from that for the 1920 U.S. Caucasian population. Since the diagnostic criteria for the DAT group were only clinical, an additional 14 probands with DAT confirmed by autopsy were studied. Mean maternal age did not differ significantly in this group from the controls, the general population, or the clinically diagnosed DAT group. It was concluded that maternal age and birth order bear no special relationship to DAT in this sample.

Aged↗

PubMed1982

Mild senile dementia of Alzheimer type: research diagnostic criteria, recruitment, and description of a study population.

Clinical investigations of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type require establishment of explicit clinical diagnostic criteria before histological confirmation is possible. Criteria for selection of mildly impaired subjects with senile dementia of Alzheimer type, free of other major disease, are proposed. Problems of recruitment of this select population for a longitudinal study are discussed. A study population with matched healthy control subjects has been enrolled and described. Short term follow-up has provided preliminary support for the diagnostic criteria.

Aged↗

PubMed1982

A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia.

Accurate clinical staging of dementia in older subjects has not previously been achieved despite the use of such methods as psychometric testing, behavioural rating, and various combinations of simpler psychometric and behavioural evaluations. The Clinical Dementia Rating (CRD), a global rating device, was developed for a prospective study of mild senile dementia--Alzheimer type (SDAT). Reliability, validity, and correlational data are discussed. The CRD was found to distinguish unambiguously among older subjects with a wide range of cognitive function, from healthy to severely impaired.

Aged↗

PubMed1980

Age and sex differences in sensitivity and response bias in a weight discrimination task.

Forty young adults (18 to 31 years) and 40 older adults (61 to 82 years) participated in weight discrimination study. The subject's task was to decide if two weights lifted successively were the same or different and to rate the decision confidence of each response. The standard weight was 210 grams and the comparison weight was either 210 or 225 grams. It was found that the younger adults discriminated between the pair of weights better than the older adults and that men discriminated better than women, but an age by sex interaction was not observed. With regard to d, much of the age difference rested with older men being less sensitive than younger men at two of five rating scale categories. There was a tendency for older adults to set stricter criteria than young adults, but this was seen only when age groups differing in sensitivity were compared. When matched for sensitivity, age differences in response bias were not found. When shifts in response bias were observed it was such that young men set higher criteria than old men at the first category of the rating scale and lower criteria at the fifth category.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

Age and the perception of incomplete figures.

Three experiments are described. They investigated four possible explanations for the previously reported poorer performance of older adults relative to younger adults in accuracy of identifying incomplete figures: (1) a higher criterion on the part of older adults for producing a response; (2) a lesser familiarity on their part with the stimulus materials; (3) a less adequate knowledge of the information value of particular segments of the figure; (4) a less efficient utilization of partial information. The results of the experiments supported the fourth hypothesis and indicated that older adults are unable to utilize stimulus information as effectively as younger adults in making perceptual inferences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

Instrumentality--terminality values in relation to age.

Terminal and instrumental value preference was investigated by asking young adults and older adults to respond to a modified version of the Rokeach Value Survey. Terminal and instrumental values were almost identical among the age and sex groups. Thus, the present data provide no evidence to support the hypothesis that older adults have a higher priority for terminal values than do young adults.

Adult↗