View clinical trials related to Vascular Dementia.
Filter by:The goal of this observational study is to learn about leakage from retinal vessels in cerebral small vessel disease. The main questions it aims to answer are: - Does retinal vessel leakage occur in cerebral small vessel disease? - If it does, is the severity of retinal vessel leakage similar to the severity of cerebral small vessel disease generally? Participants will be tested using fluorescein angiography. This involves an intravenous injection of fluorescent dye, and is a very sensitive way to find leakage from retinal blood vessels. Participants will have already had brain scans and other examinations and tests to measure the severity of their cerebral small vessel disease. Our new retinal images will complement the information from these previous tests.
The aim of the present study is to investigate potential cognitive mechanisms contributing to working memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. The investigators consider a new hypothesis suggesting that difficulties in mobilizing maintenance strategies of information could explain this working memory deficit. More specifically, the investigators assume that patient groups will have difficulties in employing both refreshing and elaborative strategies during a working memory task (i.e., complex span task), as compared to a control group.
There are currently 6.7 million Americans living with dementia and, without significant breakthroughs, this figure will double to 12.7 million by 2050. There are about 46,000 long-term care (LTC) facilities in the U.S. More than half of LTC residents have some form of dementia (Alzheimer's Association, 2018). Responsive behaviors and dysfunction of the dementia care triad-i.e., the PLWD, professional Care Partner (CP), and Family Member (FM)-are inexorably linked. The emergence of responsive behaviors can lead to disruption of the triad's function. Thus, it is imperative to maintain positive relationships and a high quality of life (QoL) within the triad to reduce BPSD. Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) has demonstrated improvements in QoL and relationships for PLWD. CST is a psychosocial intervention that promotes communication and engagement in PLWD via a structured program of meaningful and enjoyable theme. While clinical trials have shown improvement in cognition and QoL, the potential large-scale impact of CST has been hampered by low adherence, with less than 40% completing trials. One likely reason for the low adherence to CST is the reliance on generic and non-digital tools (e.g., paper-based agendas, tools, DVDs, and board games) in facilitating the intervention. That is, even though CST aims to be personalized, the specific interventions used in the field tend to be generic and not tailored to each PLWD's specific interests. The use of digital technology to implement CST would offer considerable advantages to expand and personalize the range of stimulation content and provide a means for monitoring responses, optimizing protocols, and promoting adherence. The proposed Phase II study will involve the continued development and evaluation of a multi-faceted software platform called "Building Relationships using Artificial Intelligence and Nostalgia" or BRAIN. The BRAIN Platform will be the first-ever Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered CST digital therapy platform for PLWD. The platform, which has been shown to be effective in an initial Phase I clinical trial, has three main goals: to improve the quality of life of PLWD, to reduce BPSD in PLWD, and to foster positive relationships between members of the care triad. The proposed Phase II project has the following Specific Aims: 1. Create an improved Beta version of the BRAIN Platform's eight components: (1) the Admin Management Dashboard, (2) the Annotation Dashboard, (3) the Log Viewer, (4) the Content Management System (CMS), (5) the Private CMS, (6) the Control App, (7) the Home App, and (8) the Training Dashboard. 2. Fine-tune the different classes of AI algorithms-i.e., behavioral analytics, personalized content recommendation, and personalized program generation-in the BRAIN app such that they can (a) recognize and track 12 distinct behaviors and indicators of PLWD, (b) use these behavioral traits as a basis for automatically rating the relative success of each activity, and (c) automatically recommend personalized activities that are likely to be successful for individual PLWD. 3. Conduct a Cluster Randomized Trial (CRT) of the BRAIN App to examine the app's impact on engagement/affect, quality of life, and responsive behaviors. 4. Examine satisfaction and ease of use of the app for PLWD, LTC staff, and FMs.
The goal of this observational study is to determine whether the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease is associated with an impact on etiological diagnosis, patient's management, emotional impact, patient's preferences and cost-effectiveness in patients presenting with cognitive complaints in a Cognitive Disorders Unit from a public hospital. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice enable an earlier etiologic diagnosis with high confidence compared to the late adoption of blood-based biomarkers in the patients with cognitive complaints that are admitted in a Cognitive Disorders Unit? 2. Is the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice associated with changes in clinical management compared to their late adoption? 3. Is the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice associated with a lower emotional impact in the patients and their study partners/caregivers compared to their late adoption? 4. Are blood-based biomarkers better tolerated than other tests and preferred by patients for the diagnostic work-up? 5. Does blood-based biomarkers have an impact in the cost of the diagnostic workup and clinical management of the patients that are admitted in a Cognitive Disorders Unit? Participants will be asked to: - Perform a blood extraction for blood-based biomarkers analysis at the beginning of the study. - Complete specific scales in each visit. Researchers will compare the group in which blood biomarkers are delivered at 3 months with the group in which they are delivered at 9 months to assess whether early adoption of blood-based biomarkers is associated with an impact on etiological diagnosis, patient's management, emotional impact, patient's preferences and cost-effectiveness in a specialized memory unit.
This study is designed to evaluate the impact on the quality of life and wellbeing of a person-centered online dance program on people living with dementia or MCI and care partners. The duration of the study will be 1 year. Each participant in the study will be followed for approximately 4 months. The study includes joining a weekly 1-hour dance program online on Zoom for 12 weeks. Prior and after the dance program, participants will meet with the research coordinator to answer some questionnaires about wellbeing and reflections on their experience in the program. After the completion of the dance program, participants will be invited to join a focus group to reflect of the impact of the program with fellow participants. The study will enroll up to 72 participants. This includes 36 dyads of persons living with dementia or MCI and their care partners. The study will enroll community-dwelling people living with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or mild to moderate-stage dementia and care partners living in the United States.
In this retrospective register study, clinically classified individuals with neurodegenerative disease from the years 2010-2021 will be verified from the clinical records from KUH and Oulu University Hospital (OUH). Based on the Finnish social security number, these individuals will be linked to the the national registers of Statistics Finland and Finnish Social and Health Data Permit Authority Findata including incomes, sociodemographic factors, education, occupation, criminal records as well as to the national registers including the bought pharmaceuticals, comorbidities and causes of death. For each study case, 10 randomly selected control cases, matched with age, sex and geographical area, will be used. The aim of the study is to examine: - 1) The prevalence of criminal and other disruptive behaviour in groups of different neurodegenerative diseases prior to and after the diagnosis - 2) Changes in employment, residency,income, and marital status prior to and after the neurodegenerative disease diagnosis - 3) Hospital diagnoses and reimbursable drugs prior to and after the diagnosis - 4) Causes of death in patients with neurodegenerative disease to study excess mortality of the patients
The investigators aim to 1) investigate and compare the safety, efficacy and sustainability of hf-tRNS, tACS and sham transcranial current stimulation (tCS) over left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) in mild neurocognitive disorder due to vascular disease (NCD-vascular) patients with sleep disturbances; 2) examine the relationship between the changes in sleep quality, cognitive function and brain morphometry. Methods: Chinese right-handed mild NCD-AD patients with sleep disturbances (aged from 60 to 90 years) will be randomly assigned to a 2-week intervention of either hf-tRNS, tACS, or sham tCS, with 10 participants per arm. Before intervention, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data is used to construct individual realistic head model. Comprehensive assessments, including sleep quality, cognitive performance and blood pressure will be conducted at baseline, 2th week, 6th week and 12th week. Program adherence and adverse effects will be monitored throughout intervention.
The diagnosis of diseases causing memory difficulties or dementia is often challenging. Without the use of advanced methods such as cerebrospinal fluid tests, approximately 25-30% do not receive a correct diagnosis today. However, the investigators have recently developed new blood biomarkers with high diagnostic accuracy, and the investigators now want to investigate whether they can eventually replace cerebrospinal fluid tests. This is because blood tests are much more cost-effective and significantly easier for patients compared to cerebrospinal fluid tests. In this study, 1200 patients undergoing clinical evaluations at the Memory Clinic, Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, are included for blood and cerebrospinal fluid sample collection. The blood samples are sent for analysis using the new blood biomarkers. Subsequently, the results are compared with those from the clinical analysis of cerebrospinal fluid to determine how well they perform in routine clinical practice as an alternative to cerebrospinal fluid tests and whether the blood test improves patient care. This comparison is carried out by the attending physician in three steps: 1. Assessment without access to the results of either the blood test or cerebrospinal fluid test. 2. Assessment with access to only the results of the blood test. 3. Assessment with access to the results of both the blood test and cerebrospinal fluid test. Aim 1) To prospectively validate plasma Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers for diagnosis of patients with cognitive symptoms who are evaluated in a specialist memory clinic. Aim 2) Determine whether blood AD biomarkers improve patient management in specialist memory clinic settings.
The overall aim of the study is to improve the diagnostic accuracy of AD and cognitive impairment in primary care settings to ensure better care and treatment as well as facilitate correct referrals to specialized memory clinics. The investigators will strive to recruit diverse and representative populations of patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia. The specific aims of the study are to: 1. Improve the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in primary care. 2. Develop and evaluate cognitive tests, blood-based biomarkers and brain imaging methods that are suitable for accurate and early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in primary care. 3. To prospectively validate plasma AD biomarkers for diagnosis of patients with cognitive symptoms who are evaluated in primary care. 4. Determine whether blood AD biomarkers improve patient management in primary care.
Healthcare systems around the world, including within the United States, have long-established shortages of trained caregivers. The American Health Care Association states that "the health care system has experienced a shortage of trained caregivers for critical roles for some time." This scarcity directly impacts the 45,800 Long-Term Care (LTC) communities throughout the U.S. Concurrent with this staff shortage, more than half of LTC residents have some form of dementia. These two issues create a serious public health concern, since dementia is associated with a variety of behavioral expressions, such as aggression, anxiety, and agitation. Behavioral expressions of dementia can be successfully managed with the use of tailored, psychosocial interventions and communication support. Unfortunately, existing staff shortages make the facilitation of such interventions challenging. One powerful and often-overlooked approach to ameliorating staffing shortages involves the utilization of retired volunteers to facilitate interventions for persons with dementia (PWD). Based on the nearly universal love of music and a promising pilot study, the product to be developed and tested in this STTR will build upon the combined prior work of the Principal Investigators. Making Connections Thru Music (MCTM), an urgently needed product, will enable retired volunteers to facilitate an evidence-based music and discussion intervention with PWD. MCTM aims to improve engagement, enhance quality of life, and reduce behavioral expressions in PWD. The intervention will consist of two main components: (1) a comprehensive online training course for volunteers, which will provide a general overview of dementia, demonstrate effective communication strategies to use with PWD, and instruct volunteers to effectively facilitate MCTM sessions, and (2) an app containing a structured MCTM intervention protocol and toolkit, which will be the means by which volunteers facilitate MCTM. MCTM will be marketed to LTC communities.