Sleep disturbances in patients with mild-stage Alzheimer's disease
Article Abstract:
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and severely disabling condition resulting in dementia, and eventually a total loss of cognitive functioning. A progressive loss of memory is accompanied by the degeneration of cortical and subcortical neurons and diagnosis is aided by confirmation of plaques, tangles, and granulovacular degeneration of brain tissue. Thus far, no definitive marker exits to distinguish patients in the early stages of disease. One characteristic that has been observed in association with Alzheimer's disease is sleep disturbances and, in particular, decreases in slow wave sleep (SWS), along with frequent wakefulness at night. Measures of sleep and wakefulness were taken among 45 control subjects and 44 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease to see if they effectively discriminated individuals with this disorder. All subjects underwent a complete neurological and physical examination, along with an assessment of medical, cognitive, and psychosocial history prior to the study. The Alzheimer's disease patients were significantly older than the control group, but no differences related to age distinguished the two groups. The results indicated that the group with mild Alzheimer's disease experienced sleep fragmentation 37 to 52 percent more often, and were wakeful 31 to 36 percent longer than the control group. Also, SWS sleep was 22 percent lower in patients with Alzheimer's disease than in the controls. These results confirmed observations of previous research and found that the Alzheimer's disease patients were distinguished by sleep disturbances. However, the classification of sleep disturbance rates obtained in this study were not significant enough to provide a definitive diagnostic marker for early stage Alzheimer's disease. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1990
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The immunohistochemical evidence of amyloid diffuse deposits as a pathological hallmark in Alzheimer's disease
Article Abstract:
Amyloid is a starch-like protein produced and deposited in body tissues during chronic diseases such as tuberculosis and Down's syndrome. Amyloid also accumulates outside the cells of the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The build-up of amyloid causes degeneration of tissue by producing senile plaques (SP) that congest brain tissue, and amyloid angiopathy, or blood vessel disease. Tissue from the brains of six subjects, aged 75 to 81, all with confirmed dementia, and from four nondemented subjects, aged 80 to 83, was examined to investigate the pattern of amyloid deposits in the brains of normal elderly persons and in those of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The specific method of detection, using polyclonal antibodies, is described in detail. Senile plaques and amyloid angiopathy were found, as well as amyloid deposits in the cortex (outer layer), in the brains of those with AD. The presence of amyloid deposits in the capillaries deep in the cerebral white matter of patients with AD has previously been demonstrated. Amyloid infiltration of the cortex has been found in patients with AD and Down's syndrome, but not in normal aging, or after cerebral hemorrhage with disease of the blood vessels. The results of this study indicate that extensive amyloid infiltration detected by this procedure can differentiate between the normal process of aging and the build-up of amyloids in brain tissue seen in Alzheimer's disease. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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Sleep disorders and aging: understanding the causes
Article Abstract:
The sleep disorders experienced by the elderly are caused by a variety of factors that are either physiological, age-related, psychosocial or hygienic. The treatment of disorders should be undertaken with caution, especially with regard to the use of sedatives and hypnosis-inducing drugs. The elderly, themselves, cannot expect to experience the same type of sleep they used to have when they were younger.
Publication Name: The Journals of Gerontology, Series A
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 1079-5006
Year: 1997
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