View clinical trials related to Lewy Body Disease.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to confirm the efficacy of Aricept in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).
This pilot study will test Nilotinib's ability to alter the abnormal protein build up in Parkinson disease and Diffuse Lewey Body Disease patients . Patients will receive Nilotinib at different doses for 6 months. Patients will then be tested to see if there is change in three areas: 1) has the disease symptoms changed. 2) has levels of a specific misfolded protein changed in the fluid around their brain and spine. 3) Have inflammatory markers changed in the patient's blood and fluid around their brain and spine. If successful, this drug could be used to slow down or stop the progression of disorders that involve abnormal collection of misfolded proteins. However, the main purpose of this pilot study is to check for the safety of using this medication at this level.
Individuals with Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Huntington's disease (HD) experience balance and walking problems that lead to falls. Treadmill walking has demonstrated improvements in balance and walking and fall risk in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), suggesting that it may be beneficial for individuals with DLB and HD. In PD subjects, changes in gait parameters have been noted after only one treadmill training session. The investigators propose a pilot study to investigate the safety, feasibility, and utility to improve mobility and fall risk of a single session of treadmill walking in individuals with DLB and HD.
This trial aims to collect pilot data to explore whether bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the Nucleus Basalis of Meynert (NBM) has beneficial effects on memory and thinking impairments among individuals with Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB).
Dementia with Lewy body (DLB) is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia in autopsy series. However, DLB represents a small proportion of the clinical diagnoses in epidemiology registries. Indeed Alzheimer disease (AD) and DLB are often concomitant, they share many symptoms and only a small weight is given to non-motor symptoms in DLB diagnosis. DLB is at the end of a pathological spectrum overlapping with AD, explaining the poor diagnostic value of both diagnostic criteria. To date there is still a need for a tool able to discriminate patients with pure DLB from those expressing common signs with both AD and DLB and those with pure AD. The purpose of this study is to validate a semi quantitative scale designed to reflect the Lewy Bodies burden in patients with mild to moderate cognitive decline. The investigators hypothesized that the score obtained may differentiate between AD, DLB and patients fulfilling clinical criteria for both DLB an AD. This score could also be correlated with dopaminergic depletion assessed with [18F]fluorodopa PET/computed tomography and/or with potential biomarkers of ADD measured in cerebrospinal fluid. This clinical validation is a preliminary work preceding further studies correlating the LeSCoD score with functional imaging features, prognosis and therapeutic response. Thus, the expected outcomes involve an improvement in demented patients' care, as well as a better patient selection for further therapeutic studies
This is a randomized clinical trial evaluating the benefits of a program that supports model care for persons with dementia and their family caregivers. Subjects were recruited from California, Nebraska and Iowa. Subjects determined to be eligible were consented and randomized into one of two groups. Two thirds of patients were enrolled into Navigated Care that provided them with assistance in meeting important benchmarks in their care, for example completion of legal and financial planning and strategies for minimizing caregiver burden. One third of patients were enrolled to a control group, entitled Survey of Care. Outcomes include quality of life, health care utilization, caregiver burden, satisfaction with care, caregiver depression, and caregiver self-efficacy.
We are trying to identify factors associated with improved quality of life and fewer PD symptoms. We are attempting to identify practices, beliefs, and therapies used by individuals who report excellent quality of life, few PD symptoms, and reduced rates of progression. After agreeing to participate, we will ask participants to fill our questionnaires about their experience with PD, their health in general, along with their food intake every six months for five years.
One of the crucial challenges for the future of Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapeutic approaches in elderly is to target the main pathological process responsible for disability and dependency. However, a progressive cognitive impairment occurring after the age of 70 is often related to mixed lesions of neurodegenerative and vascular origins. Whereas young patients are mostly affected by pure lesions, aging favors the occurrence of co-lesions of AD, vascular and Lewy body types. Pure DLB (Dementia with Lewy Body) and AD are distinct disorders but they often coexist in old age patients, the Abeta pathology of DLB/AD cases being different to that observed in patients with AD alone. Vascular dementia (VD) and AD with cerebrovascular disease (AD+CVD) are the leading causes of dementia next to AD alone. Lack of consensus persists about the diagnosis criteria for VD and AD+CVD, due in part to their clinical, pathological heterogeneity and the multiple pathological subtypes. We do not know the precise role and weight of each brain lesion type in the disability progression in elderly. To target the actual pathological process, we need to disclose the functional weight of AD, Lewy body and vascular lesion types in elderly. Most of the studies report on functional and clinical abnormalities in patients with pure pathologies. Thus, co-morbid processes involved in the transition from an independent functional status to disability in the elderly with co-lesions still remain to be elucidated. Neuropathological examination often performed at late stages cannot answer this question at mild or moderate stages. Brain MRI, Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) with DaTscan® and CSF biomarkers help routinely in performing the diagnosis of pure or mixed lesions responsible for dementia. The topography of the atrophy in MRI helps to provide information about the etiological diagnosis. Medial temporal lobe atrophy on MRI has good discriminatory power for AD compared to DLB and VD in pathologically confirmed cases. DaTscan® SPECT presents with good sensitivity and specificity at early stages of DLB. The good diagnosis value of CSF biological markers has led recently to their inclusion in the research diagnosis criteria of AD. Low Aβ1-42 and high levels of total tau and hyperphosphorylated tau isoforms appear to be the most sensitive and specific CSF biomarkers. Aβ1-42 is lowered in AD, as well as in other neurodegenerative diseases like DLB, VD. The combination of MRI, particularly medial temporal atrophy measures and vascular lesions on FLAIR MRI sequences, SPECT and CSF biomarkers seem to be of incremental value for the diagnosis AD, VD, DLB and mixed profiles. The aim of this study is to identify the biomarkers (MRI, SPECT-DaTscan® and CSF), and their combination, that are the most predictive of functional disability in elderly presenting with a progressive cognitive decline related to AD, DLB, VD and all mixed patterns.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Lewy body's dementia (LBD) are two frequent neurodegenerative pathologies. They differ in their expression, their evolution but share same features which make their diagnosis uneasy. Constructional apraxia has been described in both disease.The underlying mechanisms have been less studied and could be different in AD and LBD. The definition of the constructional apraxia is purely descriptive and few models are inconclusive. It is admitted that drawing tasks involve visuo-perceptive and visuo-spatial abilities, executive functions and working memory as well as purely "constructive" skills. Regarding to different studies, visuo-perceptive abilities are more severely impaired in LBD than in AD and are considered as an early onset sign of the disease. Executive functions deficits are documented in AD and LDB and could contribute to the drawing impairment. It is possible to compensate the planning disorders in giving patient the best strategy to use. If drawing impairment persists, they should result of others mechanisms like visuo-perception, visuo-spatial or constructive deficits. The investigators suggest that giving the best planning strategy will help more AD patients who are supposed to fail in raison of an executive impairment, than the LDB group who is supposed to present visuo-perceptive deficits. An MRI will be proposed to study the cerebral areas involved in constructional apraxia.
Lewy body spectrum disorders are a common group of neurodegenerative diseases that cause memory loss, behavioural and motor disabilities that impair quality of life. Cognitive enhancers help people afflicted with these conditions. However, some people do not benefit from this treatment, while others experience serious side effects. Side effects and poor response lead to hospitalization and early institutionalization. Pharmacogenomics, the study of how DNA variation can influence drug effects, will be combined with functional changes in brain imaging in response to cognitive enhancers in patients with Lewy body disease. The goal is to develop a predictive test that can be administered in the clinic to aid physicians' choice of initial medication. This can reduce health care costs and improve treatment to Canadians suffering from these devastating disorders.