title: CBF and cognitive evaluation of Alzheimer type patients before and after IMAO-B treatment: a pilot study.
abstract: Ten patients diagnosed as affected by primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer type, with a mild to moderate cognitive and behavioral impairment, were studied in a double blind design when taking for 60 days 5 mg twice a day of L-deprenyl or placebo. Cognitive functions and cerebral blood flow were assessed at the beginning and at the end of treatment by a wide array of memory, attention, and language efficiency measures and by SPECT-99TcHMPAO procedure. Reduced CBF on the parietal lobes was demonstrated in the patients at baseline together with a reduction of memory and cognitive efficiency. At the end of the treatment patients who received L-deprenyl showed an improvement in cognitive efficiency and no changes in CBF, while patients treated with placebo showed a worsening of cognitive efficiency and further reduction of parietal lobe CBF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agnoli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fabbrini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fioravanti
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martucci
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D008996:Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012642:Selegiline / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D008996:Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors; D012642:Selegiline