News
Dr Patricia Lillo speaking at the 4th Bi annual Eastern Dementia Network Aged and Dementia Care Symposium – ‘Challenges and Complexities’ – 22nd October, Bateman’s Bay
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
‘Challenges and Complexities’ – 22nd October, Bateman’s Bay click here for Programme
New stageing tool for FTD
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
Our group has developed a new stageing tool for the disease progression in frontotemporal dementia, called Frontotemporal Dementia Rating Scale (FRS). This novel tool was developed by Dr. Eneida Mioshi & Prof. John Hodges and allows clinicians to determine in which disease stage FTD patients are when they present at the clinic. This has crucial implications for potential treatment options in the future, as well as giving patients & their families a guideline of how the disease will progress.
The FRS has already received a lot of international attention, after it was published in the high-ranking American medical journal Neurology, including a podcast with Dr. Mioshi which can be downloaded from here (May 18 2010 issue).
The FRS can be downloaded for free from our website and is available to all health professionals. Click here to go to the download page
Prof. Hodges & Dr. Piguet present findings at Istanbul congress
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
Prof. Hodges & Dr. Piguet travelled to Istanbul (Turkey) to present new findings of our research at the World Federation Congress of Cognitive Neurology. Their presentations received a lot of interest, which will foster further international collaborations with researchers of the area and raise the profile of our research.
FRONTIER featured in AFTD newsletter
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Our research group (FRONTIER) has been featured in the spring newsletter of the Associations for Frontotemporal Dementias (AFTD) in the United States. The feature is based on an interview with Prof. John Hodges highlighting the work our group is conducting and the services we provide for FTD patients and their caregivers.
To download the newsletter please click the link below:
New publication – Hornberger et al.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Title: How preserved is episodic memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia?
Authors: Hornberger, M., Piguet, O., Graham, A., Nestor, P.J., Hodges, J.
Journal: Neurology
Abstract:
Objectives: Studies have shown variable memory performance in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients. Our study investigated whether this variability is due to the admixture of patients with true bvFTD and phenocopy patients. We also sought to compare bvFTD and Alzheimer disease (AD) patients’ performance.
Methods: We analyzed neuropsychological memory performance in patients with a clinical diagnosis of bvFTD divided into those who progressed (N = 50) and those who remained stable (N = 39), AD patients (N = 64) and healthy controls (N = 64).
Results:Progressive bvFTD patients were impaired on most memory tests to a similar level to that of early AD patients. Findings from a subset of progressive bvFTD patients with confirmed FTLD pathology (N = 10) corroborated these findings. By contrast, phenocopy bvFTD patients performed significantly better than progressors and AD. Logistic regression revealed that bvFTD patients can distinguished to a high degree (85%) on the immediate recall score of a word list learning test (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test).
Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for an underlying memory deficit in “real” or progressive bvFTD similar to AD, though the groups differ in orientation scores with bvFTD patients being intact. Exclusion solely based on impaired neuropsychological memory performance can potentially lead to an underdiagnosis of FTD.
New publication – Mioshi et al.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Title: Rate of change of functional abilities in frontotemporal dementia
Authors: Eneida Mioshi, John Hodges
Journal: Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders
Abstract:
Background: frontotemporal dementia (FTD) causes progressive change in everyday functioning. The rate of decline in activities of daily living (ADLs) has not been investigated for the three major FTD variants. This study aimed to (1) examine changes on the Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD) in the three FTD variants [behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD), semantic dementia (SemDem) and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA)].; (2) identify if deterioration of ADL abilities would be more prominent in initiation, planning or execution; (3) see if bvFTD phenocopy patients can be identified by these measures and (4) verify if changes in DAD and ACE-R scores are associated.
Methods: A total of 72 DAD assessments were analysed; 36 at baseline and 36 at follow up (bvFTD=16, subdivided into bvFTD pathological and phenocopy on the basis of their presenting MRIs; SemDem=11; PNFA=9).
Results: True bvFTD pathological, SemDem and PNFA groups showed significant decline on the DAD after 12 months, whereas on the ACE-R only the bvFTD pathological group reached significance. In terms of subcomponents of ADLs, SemDem patients had significant decline in planning, whereas the bvFTD pathological group declined significantly in all subcomponents; PNFA was intermediate. The decline in DAD and ACE-R scores were significantly correlated.
Conclusions: FTD variants show differential annual rates of functional decline. Those with the bvFTD phenocopy syndrome can be clearly differentiated within a year of presentation. Patients with PNFA show marked decline that is not easily explained by their language deficits. The rate of decline should be taken into consideration when discussing prognosis.
New publication – Hodges et al.
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Title: Semantic Dementia: demography, familial factors and survival in a consecutive series of 100 cases. (more…)
