Age-associated Neurological Diseases

The papers compiled in this supplementum are a selection of the best con­ th tributions presented at the 19 Central-European Neurological Symposium (CNS 19) held on June 29 - July 1, 1989 in Vienna. The main topic of this conference was degenerative and age-associated neurological diseases. In recent decades life expectancy has dramatically increased, at least in the industrialized countries. This has led to extreme distortions of the so-called population pyramids that no longer look like such but begin to almost resemble cylinders. As a consequence of this "overaging" of the population, diseases that are associated with age have become much more common than before. It was thus more than reasonable to devote a congress of the CNS series to these important neurological diseases. The following fields of interest are covered: Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI), Alzheimer's and other dementias, Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, stroke and others. Concerning the de men­ tias, some papers deal with diagnosis employing neuro-imaging methods such as MRI, CT, PET and SPECT, others using electrophysiological methods. An important aspect in the early preclinical diagnosis of dementia is the inclusion of neuropsychological tests to enhance the chance of effec­ tive early treatment. Also drugs that are now under clinical investigation are discussed and preliminary results are presented.

Contenu

Diagnosis, assessment and treatment of ageassociated memory impairment.- Physiology of short-term verbal memory.- Positron emission tomography in the differential diagnosis of organic dementias.- The spectrum of subcortical lesions in MRI, sensitivity and specificity.- Cytoskeleton pathology in Alzheimer disease and related disorders.- Morphometry of the corpus callosum in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease.- Clinical and epidemiological aspects of dementia in the elderly.- Multiinfarct dementia.- Early diagnosis of Alzheimer dementia?.- Galanthamine treatment in Alzheimer's disease.- Human blood platelet as research tool in neuropsychopharmacology.- Pattern electroretinogram and luminance electroretinogram in Alzheimer disease.- Clinical comparison of dementia in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.- Memory dysfunction in Parkinson patients: an analysis of verbal learning processes.- Does the absence of clinical expression of choreoathetosis, despite severe striatal atrophy, correlate with plasticity of neuropeptide synthesis?.- Essential tremor: functional disability vs subjective impairment.- Sympathetic vascular function in patients with central dysautonomia.- Epidemiology and out-patient care in Parkinson's disease - Results from a pilot-study in Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein).- Parkinsonian features in advanced Down's syndrome.- Effects of treatment with trihexyphenidyl on cognitive function in early Parkinson's disease.- MRI in basal ganglia diseases.- Extrapyramidal disturbances after cyanide poisoning (first MRT-investigation of the brain).- Stroke: evaluation of long-term rehabilitation effects.- Medical educational and functional determinants of employment after stroke.