[Diagnosis without therapy: early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the stage of mild cognitive impairment]

Mediterranean Diet, Ketogenic Diet or MIND Diet for Aging Populations with Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review

(1) Background: Compelling evidence shows that dietary patterns can slow the rate of cognitive decline, suggesting diet is a promising preventive measure against dementia. (2) Objective: This systematic review summarizes the evidence of three dietary patterns, the Mediterranean diet, the ketogenic diet and the MIND diet, for the prevention of cognitive decline. (3) Methods: A systematic search was conducted in major electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science) up until 31 January 2022, using the key search terms "Mediterranean diet", "ketogenic diet", "MIND diet", "dementia", "cognition" and "aging". A statistical analysis was performed using RoB 2 and the Jadad scale to assess the risk of bias and methodological quality in randomized controlled trials. (4) Results: Only RCTs were included in this study; there were eleven studies (n = 2609 participants) of the Mediterranean diet, seven studies (n = 313) of the ketogenic diet and one study (n = 37) of the MIND diet. The participants' cognitive statuses were normal in seven studies, ten studies included patients with mild cognitive impairments and two studies included Alzheimer's disease patients. (5) Conclusion: All three dietary interventions have been shown to slow the rate of cognitive decline in the included studies. The Mediterranean diet was shown to be beneficial for global cognition after 10 weeks of adherence, the ketogenic diet had a beneficial effect for patients with diabetes mellitus and improved verbal recognition, while the MIND diet showed benefits in obese patients, improving working memory, verbal recognition, memory and attention.

[Dementia and otorhinolaryngologic practice]

The interaction between sensorial registration of peripheral stimuli and their central cognitive processing is not yet understood. The role of sensory deficits such as olfactory deterioration or hearing loss in the development of dementia is currently a focus of concern, with hopes of finding new diagnostic aspects and therapeutic options for multimodal treatment concepts in patients with dementia. The expertise of ENT specialists in the diagnostic and therapeutic fields of dysphagia, vestibular dysfunction and olfactory or hearing loss could make an important contribution to the development of future strategies for dealing with dementia. In this report we present up-to-date basic knowledge and ENT-specific aspects relating to the diagnostics and treatment of dementia.

[Advances in the diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease]

Due to the demographic developments, diagnosis and treatment, dementia constitutes an increasing medical challenge and is likely to have an increasing socioeconomic impact. Dementia does not reflect a single disease but encompasses a variety of underlying conditions, heterogeneous clinical courses and therapeutic approaches, among which Alzheimer's disease represents the most common cause. Therefore, a thorough differential diagnosis of dementia is of major importance. To date the current diagnosis of dementia according to ICD-10/DMS-IV is based on clinical criteria. In addition, the concept of mild cognitive impairment comprises early cognitive dysfunction without clinically apparent dementia. Alzheimer's disease is more and more conceptualized as a disease continuum with mild cognitive impairment as an early and manifest dementia as the later stage of the disease. This review gives an overview on the current diagnostic approaches and the proposed revisions of diagnostic and research criteria for Alzheimer's disease.

Lack of Correlation of WAIS Digit Span with Clox 1 and the Dementia Rating Scale in MCI

Individuals with MCI declined in performance over 6 months in the Clock-drawing (Clox 1) and the WAIS Digit Span tests, but not in the Dementia Rating Scale (DRS). Individual performance on Clox 1 and Digit Span did not correlate after 6 months. Performance on the Digit Span Test also did not correlate with the DRS, but performance on Clox 1 correlated with the DRS. Performance in Clox 1 was, therefore, not a predictor of performance in the Digit Span Test. These findings support the use of a test battery containing the Digit Span test to detect and track cognitive decline in MCI.