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Western University

Theses/Dissertations

2019

Alzheimer's disease

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Mri Investigations Of Metabolic And Structural Brain Changes In Alzheimer’S Disease And Vitamin D Deprivation, Dickson Wong Sep 2019

Mri Investigations Of Metabolic And Structural Brain Changes In Alzheimer’S Disease And Vitamin D Deprivation, Dickson Wong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the brain that presents as progressive impairment across several cognitive domains. The biological mechanisms underlying the development of AD remain unclear, with amyloid-beta plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, calcium dysregulation, and oxidative stress all contributing to neurodegeneration in AD. Vitamin D (VitD) deficiency, a common condition in the elderly, may modulate these mechanisms and complicate the AD process. Due to this complicated pathogenesis, the diagnosis of AD requires subjective clinical judgement, staging of AD is challenging, and it remains difficult to predict when and who will progress to AD. The purpose of this thesis …


Identifying Neuroimaging And Genetic Correlates Of Delusions And Hallucinations In Alzheimer’S Disease, Juweiriya Ahmed May 2019

Identifying Neuroimaging And Genetic Correlates Of Delusions And Hallucinations In Alzheimer’S Disease, Juweiriya Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The co-occurrence of psychotic symptoms and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating phenotype that affects around 50% of individuals with AD. We hypothesized that distinct interactions between brain structures and genetic variants in dopaminergic, cholinergic and glutamatergic neurotransmitter systems may be associated with the presence of hallucinations and delusions in AD. Using the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, we identified participants that presented with symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, or both symptoms. PLS-CA was used to identify differences in patterns of interactions between 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 82 neuroanatomical regions of interest between AD patients endorsing symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, and …