Ageing and dementia are closely related conditions. Increasing age of the general population causes increasing incidence of dementing disorders in later life, although cognitive impairment is not necessarily a consequence of advancing age. The book presents the papers of the International Symposium on Ageing and Dementia, October 17-19, 1997 in Graz, where internationally renowned experts in the field of ageing and dementia gave an overview of the current knowledge about the epidemiology, pathomorphology, clinical diagnosis and course of brain ageing processes and related dementing disorders, biochemical markers and imaging procedures for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and current approaches to a successful treatment of dementia. "... this book will be of interest to clinicians with previous experience of clinical dementia assessements, and to researchers who want a comprehensive update on research areas of dementia with which they are less familiar. It will also be of interest to those following the development of neurotrophe factors for treatment of dementia who need an extensive introduction to the preclinical studies of Cerebrolysin®. The book will be fairly useful as a textbook for clinicians who are learning about clinical dementia assessments for the first time." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica

Inhalt

Anti-oxidants and cognitive function: a review of clinical and epidemiologic studies.- Brain abnormalities in the elderly: frequency and predictors in the United States (the Cardiovascular Health Study).- Apolipoprotein E genotype, atherosclerosis, and cognitive decline: the Rotterdam study.- The spectrum of age-associated brain abnormalities: their measurement and histopathological correlates.- Cognitive correlates of cerebral white matter changes.- Concepts on the prognostic significance of white matter changes.- Difficulties in the clinical diagnosis of vascular dementia and dementia of the Alzheimer type - comparison of clinical classifications.- Problems of differential diagnosis between depressive pseudo- dementia and Alzheimer's disease.- The neuropathological diagnosis of Alzheimer disease.- The progression of the lesions in Alzheimer disease: insights from a prospective clinico- pathological study.- Evolution of neuronal changes in the course of Alzheimer's disease.- The cytoskeleton in Alzheimer disease.- Mechanisms of synaptic pathology in Alzheimer's disease.- Proteolytic processing of Alzheimer's disease associated proteins.- Mechanisms of neurofibrillary degeneration and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles.- Presenilins and Alzheimer's disease: the role of A?42.- Biological markers for the diagnosis of Alz- heimer's disease.- Apolipoprotein E4, cholinergic integrity and the pharmaco- genetics of Alzheimer's disease.- Cerebrospinal fluid levels of A?42 and tau: potential markers of Alzheimer's disease.- Combination of the different biological markers for increasing specificity of in vivo Alzheimer's testing.- Positron emission tomography for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.- Current diagnostic methods and outcome variables for clinical investigation of Alzheimer's disease.- Perspectives in clinical Alzheimer's disease research and the development of antidementia drugs.- The role of glutamate in dementia.- Neurotrophic activities and therapeutic experience with a brain-derived peptide preparation.- Brain-derived peptides reduce the size of cerebral infarction and loss of MAP2 immunoreactivity after focal ischemia in rats.- The influence of Cerebrolysin® and E021 on spatial navigation of 24-month-old rats.- Molecular regulation of the blood-brain barrier GLUT1 glucose transporter by brain-derived factors.- Antioxidant systemic effect of short-term Cerebrolysin® administration.- Can Cerebrolysin® influence chronic deterioration of spatial learning and memory?.- Cerebrolysin® protects isolated cortical neurons from neurodegeneration after brief histotoxic hypoxia.- Further evidence that Cerebrolysin® protects cortical neurons from neurodegeneration in vitro.- Influence of BDNF and FCS on viability and programmed cell death (PCD) of developing cortical chicken neurons in vitro.- Dose-dependent effects of Cerebrolysin® on EEG and short term memory of healthy volunteers during control and hyperventilation induced cerebral ischemia.