Search

Almost 36 million persons live with dementia worldwide. This figure is set to double by 2030, with 66 million patients, and by 2050 there will be 116 million affected persons. Dementia has an economic impact on individuals and health services and affects the global economy. It is important to evaluate costs to plan social services and healthcare and to provide information on the cost-effectiveness of treatments. The economic cost of dementia was around 604 billion dollars in 2010 and estimates are obviously set to rise., (Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Nonlinear analyses have shown that Alzheimer disease (AD) patients' brain activity is characterized by a reduced complexity and connectivity. The aim of this study is to define complexity patterns of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. Whole-head magnetoencephalography recordings were obtained from 18 diagnosed AD patients, 18 MCi patients, and 18 healthy controls during resting conditions. Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) values were calculated. MCI patients exhibited intermediary LZC scores between AD patients and controls. A combination of age and posterior LZC scores allowed ADs-MCIs discrimination with 94.4% sensitivity and specificity, whereas no LZC score allowed MCIs-controls discrimination. AD patients and controls showed a parallel tendency to diminished LZC scores as a function of age, but MCI patients did not exhibit such "normal" tendency. Accordingly, anterior LZC scores allowed MCIs-controls discrimination for subjects below 75 years. MCIs exhibited a qualitatively distinct relationship between aging and complexity reduction, with scores higher than controls in older individuals. This fact might be considered a new example of compensatory mechanism in MCI before fully established dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]