My very good friend's husband is having an MRI tomorrow afternoon. She's very nervous. She told me they were looking for Lewy Bodies. Her FIL died of Lewy Bodies dementia when he was 68. I've not seen anyone on this link that mentioned this particular dementia. Does anyone oujt there know anything about it so I can be a support to my friend?
Lewy body can be thought of as a combination of AD and Parkinson's, since the symptoms mimic both. Lewy body dementia resembles AD in that its symptoms include impaired judgment, poor short-term memory, language problems, impaired orientation and spatial abilities, and decline in cognitive skills. Lewy body mimics Parkinson's disease in that its symptoms can include stiffness, slow shuffling gait and tremor. Visual hallucinations and delusions are common; unfortunately, patients with Lewy body can be sensitive to the antipsychotic medicines that are used to treat them.
(That last one is being cranky about coming up right now... let me know if you want any more info, and I'll see if I can find something more cooperative.)
Here is the web page for the Lewy Body Dementia Association.
http://www.lbda.org/
This is a great explanation of the symptoms: http://www.lbda.org/category/3438/symptoms.htm
Because they are including Parkinson's dementia patients in the Lewy Body group they believe that this is the second largest group of dementia patients. My understanding was that the second largest group was Vascular Dementia, but I guess if you include Parkinsons and Lewy Body together the 2nd and 3rd groups must be very similar in size.
If it is Lewy Body there needs to be symptoms of Parkinsons and/or hallucinations as well as dementia symptoms.
The consensus between his second and third Neuro was that he had Lewd Body, but because he wasn't having hallucinations they reverted back to Parkenism/AD and VD. He has had some hallucinations but mainly they were a result of new meds we were trying at first.
On that web site they are convinced that Parkinson's plus dementia IS Lewy Body. I'm not sure why, but it is possible that the drugs that work on Lewy Body will also work on the Parkinson's/dementia paring. In fact the only way they can claim to be the second largest cause of dementia, after Alzheimer's, is to include both groups as a single group.
Frankly, just as the Alzheimer's Association tries to take care of all dementia patients, and should be blessed for doing so, this agency is trying to take care of a couple of otherwise forgotten causes of dementia, and probably should be blessed as well. They run a quality web site with lots of good information. I give them points.
Here is the Mayo Clinic site. Like the other dementias, it seems like dx is primarily based on analyzing the symptoms. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lewy-body-dementia/DS00795
Thank you. This is a lot to look up and digest. I will get back to you on this. He's having his MRI at 4 PM today Pacific Time Zone. I just talked to her and shes pretty nervous. I would be, too.
Starling, Lewy body dementia is like AD, it can't be definitively diagnosed without an autopsy. However, the autopsy will show distinctive inclusions, called Lewy bodies, in the brain if that's what the patient had.
Well no wonder the drug trials are having such a hard time. There is no test for Alzheimer's. And no test for Lewy Body. That is about half to three quarters of all the dementia patients out there, or even more since most of the Vascular Dementia patients have Alzheimer's as well.
How do you get a drug that works if you don't even know what you are treating?
Ah ... you have hit the nail very squarely on the head. I do think that's why some drug trials fail -- there may be a group of the patients that is helped (they have a particular gene, or they actually have a different dementia syndrome), but the people running the trial don't know why that group is different, and they aren't allowed to count only the successes.
I have not talked to my friend today. Don't know what the MRI disclosed. I think I'll just listen to her and not offer much unless she should ask. She already has an awfully lot to handle right now without me adding anything to it.