|
|
Depression in the elderly with focus on people with cognitive deficit
Věchetová, Gabriela ; Hrachovinová, Tamara (advisor) ; Šivicová, Gabriela (referee)
Depressive symptoms are very common among people with neurocognitive disorder. The comorbidity of both diseases and the overlap of their symptoms complicates correct diagnosis and thus also the initiation of a correct treatment. The instruments of depression measuring in seniors with a severe cognitive deficit are also a discussed issue. The subject of the theoretical part is to describe the issue of depression and cognitive disorders in the old age with a focus on Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common mental disorder in the elderly together with depression. The goal of the empirical part of the thesis is to research based on the interviews with seniors if the most frequently used method of depression measuring in the elderly, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), is a suitable measuring instrument also in seniors with a cognitive deficit and further examine how these seniors actually experience the individual mood qualities which are the subjects of items in GDS. Forty seniors with a various degree of cognitive deficit participated in the research. The study results showed that the questionnaire is usable for seniors with a mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia. To detect the border of the cognitive deficit, below which it is not suitable to use the depression measuring method GDS, a...
|
|
|
Early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and their diagnosis using experimental cognitive tests with a specific focus on spatial cognition
Laczó, Martina ; Laczó, Jan (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and their diagnosis using experimental cognitive tests with a specific focus on spatial navigation Abstract This dissertation thesis is focused on early and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using experimental cognitive tests. AD starts as a preclinical stage, progresses to the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and eventually to the dementia stage. It is crucial to diagnose AD very early to slow down its progression. However, the use of specific AD biomarkers, such as amyloid and tau positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, is very limited. Experimental spatial navigation and spatial pattern separation tests, unlike conventional cognitive tests, may have a strong diagnostic potential as they depend on brain regions affected early in AD. The first study in a virtual environment showed preference for word-centered navigation in cognitively normal older adults, while participants with early AD preferred body- centered strategy to compensate for neurodegeneration. Using a virtual navigation test, the second study showed different profiles of navigation impairment in MCI participants with AD and other (i.e., non-AD) etiologies and demonstrated that navigation assessment differentiated AD from non-AD participants. Various...
|
|
|
Biofluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body disease and their relationship with cognitive and structural markers
Jurášová, Vanesa ; Veverová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Chmátalová, Zuzana (referee)
The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is based on the determination of specific proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or their imaging using positron emission tomography. Both methods are invasive and can expose the patient to risk and discomfort. Blood biomarkers, therefore, represent hope for early diagnosis and monitoring of individuals at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The diploma thesis aimed to determine biomarkers in blood using the ultrasensitive Simoa TM (Single molecular assay) technology and to verify their relationship to the values in CSF. The second aim was to track the relationship between blood biomarkers and cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease. We demonstrated a positive relationship between serum, plasma, and CSF p-tau 181 concentrations. A negative correlation was observed between the concentrations of p-tau 181 in blood and the results of the MMSE test, which is considered a standard cognitive assessment tool. These findings suggest that plasma and serum p-tau 181 may greatly help the clinical identification of neurodegenerative diseases in primary care. The negative correlation of plasma and serum p-tau 181 with MMSE test results suggests that blood p-tau 181 could be used in population-based studies to detect individuals at high risk of developing...
|
|
|
Mild cognitive impairment after stroke
Jaremová, Vladěna ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Hrachovinová, Tamara (referee)
The goal of this thesis was to describe cognitive profile of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in patients witch ischemic stroke (IST). The theoretical introduction focuses on IST, the concept of MCI, and neuropsychological test of cognitive deficits related to IST. The empirical part of the thesis describes the research results. 64 patients with various types of brain lesions after first-ever stroke were examined within 3-6 months after hospital admission. The cognitive performance was assessed across five cognitive domains: memory, attention, executive functions, visuospacial abilities, and language. All cognitive domains were impaired to the similar extend; the impairment quite severe, and ranged from 1.5 to 2.0 SD below the mean of the control group. The results showed that right hemisphere lesions were associated with visuospacial impairment whereas left hemisphere lesions were associated with language impairment. Also, it was examined which combination of tests differentiates best between patients from the experimental groups and the control group, and among individual experimental groups. It is necessary to develop and use sensitive and valid tests that can detect mild cognitive deficits in patients after ischemic stroke, which could be useful for rehabilitation planning. Keywords: mild...
|
|
|
The relationship between subjective perception of cognitive impairment and objective neuropsychological performance
Marková, Hana ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Stehlík, Luděk (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the topic of Subjective memory complaints (SMC) in elderly population in relation to early diagnostics of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The term of SMC describes patients with subjective perception of cognitive impairment which is not objectivized during a complex neuropsychological assessment. The character of their subjective complaints has not been thoroughly examined, despite their increased risk to develop cognitive impairment, most likely due to AD (Reisberg, et al., 2008). The aim of this cross-sectional study was to verify the clinical significance of the concept of SMC and to characterize subjective complaints in SMC in comparison to patients with cognitive deficit at the stage of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and in comparison to cognitively healthy elderly (HE). SMC and aMCI patients did not differ in the amount of subjective complaints, but SMC patients reported significantly more complaints compared to HE. The difference in the amount of complaints reported by the patients themselves and by their informants was found neither in aMCI, nor in SMC patients. There were identified questions which may distinguish between SMC and aMCI patients, and questions which may distinguish between SMC patients and HE; that means questions able to distinguish...
|
|
|
Memory for nonverbal material in patients with mild cognitive impairment
Sedláková, Kateřina ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Stehlík, Luděk (referee)
Patients with amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are diagnosed mainly on the basis of performance in verbal memory tests. This thesis deals with the use of a nonverbal test called the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This research compared the performance of patients with clinical diagnosis of MCI (N=79) using the BVMT-R with the performance of these patients using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), the AVLT being a validated instrument for differentiating aMCI patients from healthy control patients. Both tests follow a similar design paradigm, but they differ in the type of stimuli measured: the BVMT-R tests memory for nonverbal material and the AVLT tests for verbal material. Results showed that there is a moderate correlation between scores (total score, delayed recall score) of the BVMT-R and equivalent scores of the AVLT. Further analyses of performance of MCI patients in both tests (in total scores and delayed recall scores) identified that there was a proportion of patients tested using the BVMT-R with memory impairment that did not show any memory impairment using the AVLT. Our findings indicate a favorable diagnostic potential of BVMT-R in the diagnostics of mild cognitive impairment. Keywords:...
|
|
|
Cognitive screening tests and their potential to detect cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative diseases
Fendrych Mazancová, Adéla ; Bezdíček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Hladká, Adéla (referee) ; Hajdúk, Michal (referee)
Screening of global cognitive performance is of great importance in the detection of early cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative diseases. In contrast to complex neuropsychological assessment, cognitive screening tests offer some advantages as saving time or finance and administration of screening tests makes lower demands on clinicians. Validation of cognitive screening tests for specific diagnostic groups of patients is necessary as well as Czech normative studies that enable an objective evaluation of the cognitive performance of Czech patients. In the theoretical part, we presented the syndrome of mild cognitive impairment as a pre-dementia state in neurodegenerative diseases. We focused on the assessment of mild cognitive impairment and using five different cognitive screening tests (Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Dementia Rating Scale 2. edition, Frontal Assessment Battery, Clock Drawing Test) in the detection of cognitive impairment. Then we focused on Parkinson's disease (PD), especially on the evolution of different stages of cognitive deficit in PD and their detection by cognitive assessments. The empirical research included studies analyzing the potential of the five cognitive screening tests to detect mild cognitive impairment. We provided results...
|
|
|
Neuropsychological aspects of preclinical stages of neurodegenerative diseases
Nikolai, Tomáš ; Roth, Jan (advisor) ; Holmerová, Iva (referee) ; Jirák, Roman (referee)
Neuropsychological aspects of preclinical stages of neurodegenerative diseases are an extensively studied topic in neuropsychological research. Neuropsychological assessment can be helpful for the estimation of conversion risk in individual cases. The focus of neuropsychological research shifted from the evaluation of dementia to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or even to the detection of cognitive change before significant cognitive decline. In the theoretical part is presented a contemporary outline of preclinical stages of neurodegenerative diseases. The construct of MCI is the most studied topic in the prodromal stage of neurodegeneration and this part is dedicated to comprehensive analysis of MCI. The empirical research includes five studies on screening methods of cognitive abilities, memory and verbal fluency tests. We present normative and validity data in older adults and show their detection potential in MCI or preclinical stages of neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, we tried to show the detection potential of different memory measures in patients with MCI and estimate the relations between hippocampal atrophy and memory performance. Key words mild cognitive impairment, dementia syndrome, Alzheimer's Disease, neuropsychological assessment, diagnostic procedures
|
|
|
Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease
Bezdíček, Ondřej ; Růžička, Evžen (advisor) ; Papežová, Hana (referee) ; Hort, Jakub (referee)
Cognitive impairment is considered as essential feature of non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). It is a result of underlying pathological processes in the brain of PD patients and it leads to decreased quality of life. In this thesis an analysis of the structure and profile of cognitive impairment is presented with special emphasis on executive functions and memory. We take diagnostic entities developed for the description of PD cognitive spectrum such as mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and dementia (PD-D) as examples of heterogeneity and different severity of cognitive impairment in PD. However, neuropsychological methods in Czech version that would measure these diagnotic units were not adequatly validated. In the experimental part we test a hypothesis, if gait disorder with falls in PD is interconnected with cognitive impairment, and if PD-fallers have more severe cognitive deficit than PD-non-fallers. On the basis of nine validity or normative data studies we show psychometric properties and clinical utility of several basic neuropsychological methods in the Czech population for memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition, Memory For Intentions Screening Test and Enhanced Cued Recall Test), sustained attention and executive functions...
|
|
|
Early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and their diagnostics using methods of clinical and experimental neuropsychology
Marková, Hana ; Hort, Jakub (advisor) ; Rusina, Robert (referee) ; Jirák, Roman (referee)
The diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases leading to dementia is increasingly moving to the earlier stages in an effort to find the disease-modifying treatment for these diseases. Prodromal and preclinical stages of the diseases have become the primary research interests. Neuropsychology is specifically focused on early cognitive markers and development of methods that would be able to reliably assess these markers and to evaluate the risk of progression of cognitive decline in individual cases. The theoretical part of the thesis presents the current knowledge in the field of neurodegenerative diseases, it is specifically focused on Alzheimer's disease (AD) as the most common cause of dementia. We also present the current trends in neuropsychological diagnostics of early AD and the approach to subjective and objective evaluation of cognitive functioning. Building on that, we present the rationale for the empirical part of the thesis. The empirical part of the thesis extends the existing knowledge in the field of AD. We present and discuss seven original publications that follow three basic objectives: first, to characterize subjective cognitive complaints of individuals at risk of AD, second, to evaluate the potential of selected standard and experimental neuropsychological methods to detect...
|
guest ::
