RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To review the relationship between Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. DEVELOPMENT: Down's syndrome is the commonest autosomopathy. Its clinical features permit easy diagnosis. Control of the more severe complications, such as cardiac malformations have allowed prolonged survival. The presence of neuropathological findings similar to those in Alzheimer's disease is almost constant in the brains of patients aged over 40 years with Down's syndrome. Dementia appears in a third of these patients. In this article we comment on the diagnostic difficulties, possible risk factors and the importance of findings related to chromosome 21. We also evaluate the results of new treatments with cholinesterase inhibitors. CONCLUSION: The study of the close relationship between Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease should allow us to advance understanding of both of these conditions.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer , Síndrome de Down , Adulto , Doença de Alzheimer/tratamento farmacológico , Doença de Alzheimer/genética , Doença de Alzheimer/metabolismo , Doença de Alzheimer/fisiopatologia , Apolipoproteínas E/genética , Apolipoproteínas E/metabolismo , Atrofia/patologia , Encéfalo/patologia , Inibidores da Colinesterase/uso terapêutico , Cromossomos Humanos Par 21 , Transtornos Cognitivos , Síndrome de Down/tratamento farmacológico , Síndrome de Down/genética , Síndrome de Down/metabolismo , Síndrome de Down/fisiopatologia , Humanos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Índice de Gravidade de DoençaRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of migraines attributable to continuous consumption of analgesics. DESIGN: A longitudinal prospective study of a descriptive type. SETTING: A specialised Neurology Clinic within a County hospital, which provides the Primary Care coverage for ibiza and Formentera. PATIENTS: All those patients who were referred to the said clinic over a two-year period. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Nine cases were identified: 1.1% of all patients. The drug involved in 90% of the cases was the aspirin. 100% of the patients were women. Anxiolytics, anti-depressive and Naproxen were used in treatment. In all cases treatment was on an out-patient basis. Over a minimum follow-up period of six months, there was only one relapse. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that although the incidence of this condition at a specialist clinic is low due to self-medication and to the fact that none of the patients was referred with this suspected diagnosis, there is an important gap in knowledge within Primary Care about this treatable condition.
