Objective: To determine the prevalence and types of dementia in a Lima’s urban community. Design: Bietapic conglomerate sampling. Setting: Private health institutions. Patients: Older than 65 years subjects. Interventions: In the Cercado de Lima district, 1 532 older than 65 years subjects randomly selected had brief neuropsychological evaluations including the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), drawing the Clock Test (PDR), and Pfeffer’s functional activities questionnaire (PFAQ). According to the results obtained, individuals were classified as selected or not selected. The group selected included those subjects presenting/displaying cognitive deterioration, who further had neurological and neuropsychological evaluations, laboratory tests and brain computed tomography (TC). Main outcome measures: Dementia prevalence. Results: We found 105 cases of dementia corresponding to 6,95%...

Due to the increasing prevalence of dementia in the world we must put special attention to diagnostic evaluation of pre-dementia stages. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) could be considered an early stage of dementia, particularly of Alzheimer's disease (AD), so we consider important proper diagnosis using reliable and sensitive tools and techniques in order to discriminate subjects with normal and pathological aging. Epidemiological studies show high prevalence of MCI in the general population as well as progression of MCI to dementia and AD, especially in subjects with amnesia type MCI. Age, APOE-ε4 carrier status, hippocampus atrophy by MRI, and presence of certain biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid can influence conversion. Evaluation of patients with MCI suspicion should be the same used in suspicion of dementia and AD. Neuropsychological assessment is the only test confirming diagno...

Objectives: To analyze the effects of cholinesterase inhibitors (CHEIs) prescribed for treatment of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease (PDD). Design: Open essay study. Setting: Neurology Service, Hospital Militar Central, and Cognitive Deterioration Diagnosis Unit and Dementia Prevention, Clinica Internacional. Participants: Patients with dementia associated to Lewy bodies and dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease. Interventions: Outcome measures included the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog), Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study-Clinical Global Impression of Change (ADCS-CGIC), Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living Inventory (ADCS-ADL), Neuro-Psychiatry Inventory (NPI), Ten Point Clock-Drawing Test (CDT) and Unified Parkinson´...

En la enfermedad de Parkinson (EP), las áreas cognitivas pueden estar íntegras (EP cognitivamente normales, EP-CN), o afectarse desde compromisos ligeros sin compromiso de la funcionalidad (deterioro cognitivo leve asociado a EP, DCL-EP), hasta franca alteración de ella (demencia asociada a la EP, DEP). Objetivos: Evaluar el rendimiento cognitivo de pacientes con EP en diversos estadios cognitivos y compararlos con un grupo control. Pacientes y métodos:Prospectivamente se formaron cuatro grupos: 20 controles, 22 con diagnóstico de EP-CN, 18 con DCL-EP, y 23 con DEP. Siguiendo un ordenado protocolo, los individuos fueron sometidos a evaluaciones sucesivas de cribado, diagnóstico y tipo de deterioro cognitivo, luego de los cuales, fueron evaluados mediante una batería neuropsicológica para evaluación de atención, memoria, lenguaje, habilidades viso-constructivas y funciones ejecu...