LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine University ...

3.1.3.5 Gerontopsychiatry and dementia research
Director: T. Supprian (from April 2005),
C. Kretschmar (until April 2005)
Coworkers: C. Lange-Asschenfeldt (from August 2005),
R. Ihl (until April 2005)
Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s Dementia
Director: T. Supprian, C. Lange-Asschenfeldt, as well as,
for the Competence Network on Dementia: R. Ihl (until
2005), C. Luckhaus (from 2005)
Scientific assistants: T. Salamon, B. Höft, J. Szpak,
B. Grass-Kapanke (until 2007), I. Blaeser (until 2008)
Cooperation (external): H. Kessler, Department of
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Saarland,
Homburg (Saar), K. Fast, Department of Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich,
as well as the Competence Network on Dementia
(Spokesperson: W. Maier, Department of Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy of the University of Bonn).
Financing: Funding from the Competence Network on
Dementia, as well as departmental research budget
In this research area, the projects started earlier in the
department were continued, and the memory outpatient unit
(Director: C. Lange-Asschenfeldt) of the gerontopsychiatry
institute outpatient clinic was used for research purposes.
Worthy of note is the active participation in projects of the
Competence Network on Dementia. In addition to the larger
projects, described in more detail below, in the context of
dissertations the working group also created an instrument
for assessing dementia patients’ insight into their illness
as well as the suitability of the Bielefeld Famous Faces
Tests (BFFT) for the early diagnosis of depression and
Alpha
Beta
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MCI AD
MCI AD
ReseaRch
dementia. Other areas of interest include cardiovascular and
metabolic comorbidity in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
and the analysis of persons visiting an outpatient psychiatric
memory unit.
Projects
Study E 1: Early and differential diagnosis
The aim of this study, performed within the context of the
Competence Network on Dementia, was to use the subprojects
on neuropsychology, neurochemical dementia
diagnostics and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to
improve the diagnosis of the early stages of dementias. In
Düsseldorf, over 160 patients with Mild Cognitive Disorders
(MCI) and beginning dementia were included. The annual
follow-up investigations were concluded in the summer of
2008. As an associated satellite project in Düsseldorf, an
MRI study was carried out with the aim of assessing regional
cerebral perfusion by means of perfusion-weighted MRI in
MCI and beginning Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD). This new
imaging technique, which allows structural and functional
MR imaging within a single investigation, showed early ADspecific
alterations at the MCI stage. In addition, it also
provided information about increases in regional cerebral
perfusion, which correspond to functional compensation
mechanisms for activation, in the subgroups amnestic MCI
and beginning AD. An add-on EEG investigation was also
carried out in cooperation with the psychophysiology unit.
Routine surface EEG was recorded in the majority of the
individuals included in E1. In the individuals included in E2.2,
32-channel surface EEG was recorded before and during
pharmacological treatment, including recording eventcorrelated
potentials (P300). Computer-assisted quantitative
Delta
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FZ (Front zone) CZ (Centrocentral area) PZ (Parietocentral area)
MCI AD
MCI AD
Figure 17: Investigations into the change of brain-electrical activity using electroencephalography (EEG) in the progression from MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment)
to early Alzheimer’s Dementia. Four frequency bands of normal rest activity are represented in the EEG (Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta) in three brain areas, FZ
(central frontal area), CZ (Centrocentral area) and PZ (Parietocentral area). This showed a statistically significant divergence of Alpha activity in the parietal zone
which was specific to both frequency band and brain area (no significant EEG change in other regions or other frequency bands). Figure modified after: Luckhaus
et al.: Quantitative EEG in progressing vs stable mild cognitive impairment (MCI): results of a 1-year follow-up study; Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2008 (11): 1148-55.
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