dementia-2019-scientifictracks

3 / 5

allied
academies
Page 16
September 16-17, 2019 | Paris, France
Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease
13th World Congress on
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Cognitive Psychology | Volume: 03
A treatable Dementia: Normal pressure Hydrocephalus
Veronica Redaelli
Neurological Institute Carlo Besta, Italy
In the near future the population of the over 65 is
expected to increase arising the big problem of social
care of the elderly. As consequence, the incidence of
iNPH will grow because of the augmented life expectancy
increasing the risk of severe cognitive impairment.
Idiopathic normal pressure (iNPH) is a neurological
disorder occurring in older adults and involving gait and
balance disturbances, control of micturition, and cognitive
impairment (the so-called “classic triad” of symptoms of
the disease) associated with enlargement of the cerebral
ventricles. Gait and balance disturbances are the most
common early presenting findings and may occur alone or
together, with cognitive and urinary symptoms appearing
later. Diagnosis is often challenging due to its varied
presentation and overlaps with other disorders common
in the elderly (e.g. dementia or parkinsonism). Evidence-
based consensus guidelines for diagnosis and treatment
of iNPH were created to assist in clinical management,
although the pathophysiological basis of the disease is still
not clear. The diagnosis of iNPH presently requires at least
the clinical observation of one or more of its characteristic
symptoms in combination with brain imaging evidence of a
non-obstructive ventricular enlargement disproportionate
to cerebral atrophy; adjunctive invasive tests (e.g. tap test,
determination of outflow resistance, prolonged external
drainage) to confirm diagnosis are suggested.
Correct diagnosis is very important for good prognosis
after surgical shunting. Patients can present more than
one disease: neurodegenerative, vascular disease and
iNPH often contribute to the clinical presentation of old
patients. Understand if treatment of iNPH can take to a
better quality of life of the patients is the first aim of the
neurologist. Surgical shunting of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
is recommended for iNPH patients with a favourable risk-
to-benefit ratio. Evidence has been collected about the
presence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers typically
found in other neurodegenerative processes (e.g. ab-
amyloid).
Speaker Biography
Veronica Redaelli is a neurologist and a researcher at Carlo Besta
Neurological Institute in Milan. Her work is centered around patients
affected by neurodegenerative diseases, in particular dementias as
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prion diseases, tauopathies, parkinsonisms
and patients affected by iNPH. She studies neurodegenerative diseases
using a variety of approaches including genetic studies, classical
neuropathology and immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, cellular and
molecular biology and was aimed to define clinico-pathological and
phenotype-genotype correlations in neurodegenerative diseases and
to elucidate the pathogenetic mechanisms of neuronal degeneration in
the diseases referred to as cerebral proteinosis, that are characterised
by the accumulation in the nervous tissue of proteins or protein
fragments (often amyloidogenic) as Aβ, prion protein and tau protein.
e:
Notes: