Kim Blom

University Medical Center Utrecht | UMC Utrecht · Julius Center of Health Sciences and Primary Care

Background Specific subfields within the hippocampus have shown vulnerability to chronic stress, highlighting the importance of looking regionally within the hippocampus to understand the role of psychosocial risk factors in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. The current study had two aims: to perform a systematic review on psychosocial...

Specific subfields within the hippocampus have shown vulnerability to chronic stress, highlighting the importance of looking regionally within the hippocampus to understand the role of psychosocial factors in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. A systematic review on psychosocial factors and hippocampal subfield volumes was performed and...

We determined the occurrence and association of cortical cerebral microinfarcts (CMIs) at 7 T MRI with risk factors, neuroimaging markers of small and large vessel disease, and cognitive functioning. Within the Medea-7T study, a diverse cohort of older persons with normal cognition, patients with vascular disease, and memory clinic patients, we inc...

Background Subjective cognitive decline is increasingly being viewed as an early cognitive marker of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Studies have recommended including AD biomarkers to increase the specificity of subjective cognitive decline, because of its etiological heterogeneity. We studied the prevalence and burden of cerebral microbleed...

Background The hippocampal formation is considered to be one of the first brain structures affected in Alzheimer’s disease. High resolution brain MRI has made it possible to visualize the subfields of the hippocampal formation in greater detail. We estimated volumes of hippocampal subfields on 7T MRI in normal aging and early Alzheimer’s disease. W...

Background: Vascular risk factors have been associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and volume loss of the hippocampus, but the associations with subfields of the hippocampus are understudied. Knowing if vascular risk factors contribute to hippocampal subfield atrophy may improve our understanding of vascular contributions to neurodegener...

Hippocampal sulcal cavities (HSCs) are frequently observed on MRI, but their etiology and relevance is unclear. HSCs may be anatomical variations, or result from pathology. We assessed the presence of HSCs, and their cross-sectional association with demographics, vascular risk factors and cognitive functioning in two study samples. Within a random...

We estimated associations of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) with neuro-imaging markers of dementia and cognitive functioning in patients with a history of vascular disease without objective cognitive impairment. Within the SMART-Medea study, 599 patients (62±9 years) had 1.5T brain MRI and cognitive testing at baseline and after 8 years of foll...

Background: Multi-atlas segmentation, a popular technique implemented in the Automated Segmentation of Hippocampal Subfields (ASHS) software, utilizes multiple expert-labelled images ("atlases") to delineate medial temporal lobe substructures. This multi-atlas method is increasingly being employed in early Alzheimer's disease (AD) research and is...

- Treatment options for patients with dementia are limited. This article provides an overview of possible interventions, both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical, for Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and mixed dementia.- Pharmaceutical treatment options include cholinesterase inhibitors, memantine and experimental medication. Cholinesterase...

INTRODUCTION The influence of vascular risk factors (VRFs) on the rate of cognitive decline in patients with established dementia is unclear. This study aims to examine the association between VRFs and the rate of cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). METHODS Data were obtained from patients visiting a memory clinic between...

Vascular risk factors (VRF) are associated with a higher incidence of dementia. However, the relationship with disease progression is unclear. This review examined the association of VRF (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, overweight, smoking or multiple VRF) and cognitive decline in patients suffering from dementia. Literature...

Extinction learning refers to the phenomenon that a previously learned response to an environmental stimulus, for example, the expression of an aversive behaviour upon exposure to a specific context, is reduced when the stimulus is repeatedly presented in the absence of a previously paired aversive event. Extinction of fear memories has been implic...