Clinical Characteristics of Dementia with Lewy Bodies

ABSTRACT

The dementia with Lewy bodies which was common next to the Alzheimer's dementia had been oftenly misdiagnozed as vascular dementia. The pathologic diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies was increasing with the development of immunocytochemical techniques, and it also drew much interest recently. The clinical criteria included core symptoms such as fluctuation of cognitive function, well-formed visual hallucination and extrapyramidal symptoms. For the pathologic criteria, presence of brainstem or cortical Lewy bodies were essential, besides of other pathology. However, it was difficult to obtain satisfactory consensus between investigators about the clinical and pathologic criteria of the dementia with Lewy bodies. There were several reports which suggested good response to the cholinesterase inhibitors.