Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The purpose of this study is to determine whether by measuring changes in the thickness of the retinal nerve fibre layer (the photosensitive layer at the back of the eye) you could predict if someone would develop Alzheimer's disease in the future. The measurement is made by OCT (ocular coherence tomography), a noninvasive and relatively inexpensive test that uses light waves to scan the back of the eye.

We are extending the researches of Taiwan neurosurgery traumatic brain injury (TBI) database which is led by Professor WT Chiu in Taipei Medical University and will recruit mild TBI (mTBI) participants who have ever been registered in the database. This database has been established for over 15 years and contains the information of over 150000 patients. It is one of the largest TBI database in the world. TBI usually results from traffic accidents, falls or violence events. Most of the victims are young people and the victims suffer from life-threatening and mental-physical deficits. Mild TBI (mTBI) usually was neglected before because its symptoms, signs are mild and mTBI patients usually were not obtained enough initial treatment. Therefore, mTBI might result in long-term cognitive and affective impairments, such as depression, indifference, anxiety, memory impairment, loss of attention and executive function. These late effects not only decrease the life quality of patients and their family but also increase the social and medical burden. Recent epidemiology studies have pointed out that TBI would increase the risk for dementia, especially Alzheimer disease (AD) by 2-4 times. However, the association between TBI severity, number of repeats, genetic factors and onset of AD remains further investigation. Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are the pathological hallmarks for AD. Accumulation of Aβ is considered to be the first step of pathophysilogy of AD. Compelling researches have supported TBI accelerates the formation and accumulation of Aβ. These findings could link TBI with AD but the previous researches had limitations. There was lack of mTBI pathology data so the impacts of mTBI on Aβ accumulation were still obscure. By amyloid-PET, we could study the effects of mTBI on the accumulation of Aβ and this tool could be helpful for understanding the real impacts and pathophysiological mechanisms of mTBI on AD.

The purpose of this study is to compare characteristics of gait and balance measured among patients with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders separated into 3 groups according to the stage of disease (i.e., pre-dementia, mild and moderate dementia stages); to determine the effects of anti-dementia drugs and vitamin D on cognitive motor abnormalities; and to establish a database at Angers University Memory Centre.

The Alzheimer's Disease Anti-inflammatory Prevention Trial - Follow-up Study (ADAPT-FS) will continue observations of the declared primary outcomes of the Alzheimer's Disease Anti-inflammatory Prevention Trial (ADAPT) in the cohort previously established for that trial.

The etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, remains largely undefined and the early diagnostic and effective treatments are still not available. In addition to the neuropathological hallmarks, cerebrovascular dysfunction has been identified as an important component of AD. Using the experimental models, we showed that cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), the ability of cerebral vessels to dilate or constrict in response to stimuli, is impaired very early in AD. We designed this trial to compare CVR to carbon dioxide (CVR CO2) in AD patients and in persons with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), the cognitively healthy individuals which began to worry about worsening their memory, and to correlate CVR CO2 with AD markers in cerebrospinal fluid and the blood markers of endothelial function. We hypothesize that CVR represents a potential diagnostic/prognostic marker and an attractive target for the development of new therapeutics in AD.

This study is intended to examine the impact of learning amyloid brain imaging results among asymptomatic older adults, and how to safely communicate these results and educate on the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Background With the global population aging and life expectancy increasing, dementia has turned a priority in the health care system. In Chile, dementia is one of the most important causes of disability in elderly, corresponding nearly to 40% of cases, and the most rapidly growing cause of death in the last twenty years. Cognitive complaints are considered a marker able to predict cognitive and functional decline, incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and incident dementia. The Gero cohort is the Chilean core clinical project of the Gerocenter on Brain Health and Metabolism (GERO), whose aim is to establish the capacity in Chile to foster cutting edge and multidisciplinary research on aging. Objective This study has two main objectives. First, i) to analyze the rate of functional decline and progression to clinical dementia and their risks factors (biomedical, imaging, psychosocial, and clinical) in a community-dwelling elderly with subjective cognitive complaint, through a population-based study. Second, ii) to build the capacity to undertake clinical research on brain aging and dementia disorders and create Data-Bank and Bio-Banks with an appropriate infrastructure to further studies and facilitate access to the data and samples for research. Methods The Gero cohort aims at recruiting 300 elderly subjects (>70 years) from the community of Santiago (Chile), following them up for at least 3 years. Eligible people are non-demented adults with subjective cognitive complaint, which are reported either by the participant, the proxy or both. Participants are identified through a household census. The protocol of evaluation is based on a multidimensional approach including socio-demographic, biomedical, psychosocial, neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric and motor assessments. Neuroimaging, blood and stool sample samples are also included. This multidimensional evaluation is carried out in a baseline assessment and 3 follow-ups assessment, at 18 and 36 months. In addition, in months 6, 24, and 30, a telephone interview is done in order to keep contact with the participants and to assess general well-being.

This study evaluates an educational brochure tailored to caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease dementia, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular disease dementia. The goal of the brochure is educating caregivers about the decreased ability to detect emotion and decreased empathy that can be seen in dementia, increasing caregiver competence in providing care, and teaching caregivers ways to manage over time that lessens burden and improves quality of life.

The cause of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, remains unknown. Neuropathological studies suggest that a small area in the brainstem, the locus coeruleus, might be the site of the onset of the disease. This area is the sole source of noradrenalin to the brain, a neurotransmitter involved in arousal, but also cognitive functions. Animal and pharmacological studies have hinted towards an important role of this area in memory functioning. However, these studies were hampered by the limited spatial resolution, making it hard to clearly localize the locus coeruleus in the brain. New developments in brain imaging allow now to visualize the brain with stunning precision. Furthermore, a non-invasive new stimulation method, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, is believed to excite the locus coeruleus and thereby influencing neuronal networks and memory functioning. There are three aims in this project: To investigate how the functional interaction between the locus coeruleus and other brain areas, in particular the medial temporal lobe areas, during memory processes (encoding, consolidation and retrieval) change with development of Alzheimer's disease. To investigate associations between noradrenaline, memory performance and brain functioning. The investigators aim to investigate how acute noradrenalin levels change during the different memory processes and whether or not this is beneficial for performance. Furthermore, the investigators will investigate whether this interaction between noradrenalin, memory performance and brain functioning is different healthy older individuals (n =35) or patients with prodromal Alzheimer's disease (n =35). To investigate the underlying neural network changes during transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation. The investigators will focus on differences in functional connectivity between the locus coeruleus and the medial temporal lobe areas in healthy older individuals and prodromal Alzheimer's disease patients. An experimental condition will be compared with a sham condition in a pseudo-randomized cross-over design.

It is hypothesized, that local retinoic acid (RA) homeostasis is functionally involved in the pathophysiology of depression. In a cross-sectional (and partly longitudinal) analysis, serum RA status will be assessed in healthy controls and subjects with Major Depression, Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism and in subjects with schizophrenia.