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Lewy body disease
Saturday 11 June 2016
Lewy body dementia (LBD), diffuse Lewy body disease, cortical Lewy body disease, senile dementia of Lewy type; dementia with Lewy bodies
Definition: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of progressive neurodegenerative dementia closely associated with Parkinson’s disease primarily affecting older adults.
Its primary feature is a more rapid cognitive decline than with Parkinson’s, which may lead to hallucinations, as well as varied attention and alertness when compared to a person’s baseline function.
People with LBD display an inability to plan or a loss of analytical or abstract thinking and show markedly fluctuating cognition.
Wakefulness varies from day to day, and alertness and short-term memory rise and fall. Persistent or recurring visual hallucinations with vivid and detailed imagery often are an early diagnostic symptom.
The disorder is characterized anatomically by the presence of Lewy bodies, clumps of alpha-synuclein and ubiquitin protein in neurons, detectable in post mortem brain histology.
See also
Lewy body / Lewy bodies
References
Evidence of Alzheimer’s in patients with Lewy body disease tracks with course of dementia. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170105101318.htm