Mari Kasai

Tohoku University | Tohokudai · Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center (CYRIC)

Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by a slow progressive impairment of episodic memory. Many studies have shown that AD exhibits deterioration of semantic memory during the course of disease progression. We previously reported that AD patients exhibited severe access disorders in the semantic memory system, using the Momentary Pr...

Introduction: Older adults with dementia often develop aspiration pneumonia as a complication due to deterioration of swallowing function. Herein, we report our findings of eating and swallowing-related functions in elderly local residents. Methods: The subjects were 229 elderly residents in Kurihara City, including 97 healthy (Clinical Dementia Ra...

Background/Aims We investigated quantitative/qualitative changes of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in people with a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0.5. Methods IADLs were evaluated in older residents: CDR of 0 (healthy) and CDR 0.5 (questionable/very mild dementia). The subjects with CDR 0.5 were divided into 2 types: the very m...

Background/Aims No previous studies have explored the relationship between physical activity (PA) and executive dysfunction. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the PA for 590 older participants in the Kurihara Project; 221 participants had a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0 (healthy), 295 CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia), and 74 CDR 1+ (dementia)...

Objectives: The group reminiscence approach (GRA) and reality orientation (RO) are common psychosocial interventions for patients with dementia. As a qualitative evaluation of the reminiscence approach in patients with dementia, the Patient Report Outcome (PRO) is useful. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of GRA-RO for parti...

Background: Recently, the concept of motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome was proposed, where slow gait is considered a risk factor for conversion to dementia. Aim: To retrospectively investigate the characteristics of MCR among a population aged 75+ years, focusing on the aspects of epidemiology and neurobehavioral characteristics. Method: T...

Aim: After the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, we investigated the safety of residents in the affected communities. Most of the people requiring help were elderly and had previously been assessed as Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5 (i.e. as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI)). We examined how well they understood the television news and...

Background: The Necker cube is usually used for evaluating the visuoconstructional ability of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, the Necker cube is often considered a drawing with a visual illusionary perspective. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Necker cube copying could detect participants wi...

Background We previously demonstrated a positive correlation with nursing home (NH) replacement and donepezil (DNP) administration on lifetime expectancy after the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the correlation with quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) remains to be elucidated, along with the additional impact of concomitant cerebrovascul...

Evidence as to the benefits of nonpharmacological interventions for the boundary state between normal aging and dementia [mild cognitive impairment or a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0.5] remains weak due to a lack of positive controls. To directly compare the effects of cognitive interventions (CI), physical activities (PA) and a group reminis...

The AD8 is a brief, sensitive informant interview tool for detecting dementia. However, there are no reports of a Japanese version of the AD8. Our aim was to establish the reliability and validity of the AD8 for screening for dementia in older adults 75 years of age or older in Japan. We acquired the author's permission to translate the AD8 from En...

Background and purposeCholinesterase inhibitors can delay the progression of Alzheimer¿s disease (AD). Several clinical trials of the drug in moderate to severe AD have consistently reported clinically positive effects. A combining effect with psychosocial intervention was reported in mild to moderate AD patients. Since a therapeutic approach or re...

Clinicians need an objective scale to measure apathy in patients with dementia. However, different cutoff scores for the Apathy Evaluation Scale Informant version (AES-I), an international apathy scale, have been used in previous studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cutoff score, reliability and validity of the Japanese version...

The behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) caused by Alzheimer's disease (AD) can burden caregivers. Group homes (GH), small nursing homes, for the elderly with dementia are institutions commonly run by the public long-term care insurance system in Japan. The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence of BPSD of AD, as e...

Background: Depression is a common co-morbid disorder in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), however, not all patients with MCI exhibit depressive symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the effect of depression on cognitive and functional decline in MCI. Methods: Two hundred and eighty one patients with MCI (MCI) defined by 0.5 score...

AimThe effects of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are making a major impact on the socioeconomic status of older adults in society. The recognition of early symptoms and clinical presentation are crucial issues to foster early diagnosis and treatment in order to have better therapeutic outcomes.Methods We recruited clinically diagnosed AD patients at the...

Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) such as donepezil have the effect of delaying progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their effect on life expectancy is unclear. We analyzed the influence of donepezil on life expectancy after onset of AD, together with the effects of antipsychotic drugs and residency in a nursing home. All outpatients at the...

Objective. Previous studies have shown that some patients with semantic dementia (SD) have memory storage disorders, while others have access disorders. Here, we report three SD cases with both disorders. Methods. Ten pictures and ten words were prepared as visual stimuli to determine if the patients could correctly answer names and select pictures...

The quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) and health state utility values (HSUVs) are major quality of life scales that are used for the analyses of health economics of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). In Japan, the most common dementia disease is AD with cerebrovascular diseases (CVD), followed by 'pure' AD. There is a need to reconsider QAL...

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of apathy, and to compare vascular mild cognitive impairment (vMCI), amnestic MCI (amMCI), and other type using Clinical Assessment for Spontaneity (CAS). Agreement to take part in the study was obtained from 590 community dwellers, aged ≥75 years living in Kurihara, Japan. Of the 590 subjects, 2...

Previous studies have shown that some patients with semantic dementia (SD) have memory storage disorders, while others have access disorders. Here, we report three SD cases with both disorders. Ten pictures and ten words were prepared as visual stimuli to determine if the patients could correctly answer names and select pictures after hearing the n...

We investigated a quantitative and qualitative restriction of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) , especially focusing on very mild Alzheimerʼs disease (AD). &nb We analyzed IADL functions in residents aged 75 years and older who participated in the Kurihara project, including Clinical Dementia Rating...

Objective: To investigate impaired shifting of visuospatial attention in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) compared with age-matched controls. Method: An attention shifting was examined in 20 AD patients and 10 age-matched normal subjects by choice reaction time (CRT) and covert orienting paradigm. Visuospatial functions tests were also performed. For cover...

Background: There have been no reports on the prevalence of dementia among the old-old people in Japan. Methods: We studied the old-old population in Kurihara, northern Japan. Analysis 1 of Participants 1 (n=590) was performed to evaluate the prevalence of dementia and dementing diseases by intensive evaluation including MRI. Analysis 2 aimed to...

To examine the effectiveness of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to screen people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), to associate the MoCA score with the presence of infarction, and to detect the characteristics of people with very mild subcortical vascular dementia (vmSVD). 392 out of 886 community dwellers aged 75 years and above livin...

To determine whether impaired instrumental activities of daily living affect conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia for subjects in a community. This is a 7-year retrospective study that followed 226 randomly selected participants from the Prevalence Study 1998 in Tajiri in northern Japan who had Clinical Dementia Rating 0.5. Instrum...

Objective: To investigate impaired shifting of visuospatial attention in Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared with age-matched controls. Method: An attention shifting was examined in 20 AD patients and 10 age-matched normal subjects by choice reaction time (CRT) and covert orienting paradigm. Visuospatial functions tests were also performed. For co...

To examine the relationship between the incidence of dementia and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Longitudinal data analyses. Baseline data and follow-up data from the Osaki-Tajiri Project. The Tajiri Project dementia prevalence study in 1998 involved 497 community-dwelling, older men and women (346 with Clinical Dementia Rating score (CDR) of 0 (hea...

The relationship of predementia stage with cerebrovascular disease (CVD) has not been fully clarified. Following our Prevalence Study 1998 in Tajiri, Japan, Incidence Study 2003 disclosed that 17.9% of subjects developed vascular dementia (VaD). Some cases developed after stroke (type I), whereas others already met the criteria for subcortical VaD...

Aims : Our aim is to estimate the prevalence of apathy and examine neuropsychological features in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects in community. Methods : We enrolled 368 community dwellers aged 75 years or more, who lived in Kurihara, Miyagi, and we obtained informed written consent from 200 subjects. One hundred eighty-nine of 200 subject...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. In this review article, we summarized the current findings concerning the prevalence and incidence of AD in Japan and other countries; these findings were reported in the last 10 years. The prevalence of dementia among individuals aged more than 65 and more than 75 years was 2.4%-8.4% and...

To determine whether everyday life activities are affected by general cognitive impairment or tool using disabilities in Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD). Thirty AD the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) and 30 VaD t...

The borderline condition between health and dementia, defined as Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5, should be detected for the possible prediction of dementia. Since the CDR requires information from collateral sources, it is difficult to rate people living alone. The aim is to develop a set of tests without collateral information for detecting CD...

The Benton Visual Form Discrimination test (VFD) is one of the non-verbal tests to assess the capacity for complex visual form discrimination. The purposes of the present study were to investigate the effects of age and education level of the VFD in healthy elderly subjects, rigorously excluding participants with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5,...

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT) is widely used to measure visuoperceptual and visuoconstructional skills, while the Line Bisection (LB) test is commonly employed to assess unilateral spatial neglect (USN). Previous studies have suggested that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients may suffer from left USN. Objectives The purpose of this s...

The incidence of dementia and risk factors has not been fully investigated in Japan. Following a prevalence study in 1998, we investigated the incidence and associated factors in the same population in 2003 and 2005. Randomly selected 771 residents in Tajiri were targeted. The final participants included 204 (65.2%) healthy older adults (Clinical D...

The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a common two-part neuropsychological test, in which visuospatial ability (TMT-A) and executive function (TMT-B) are evaluated. Normative data for this test have not been reported for Japanese subjects; therefore, the purpose of the present paper was to investigate the effect of age and education on the TMT in 155 heal...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between normal aging and dementia. Although there have been some studies on the role of verbal memory in learning ability, there have been no reports on the part played by visual memory. In the present study, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT) was given to healthy subjects and to th...

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of normal elderly participants and patients with Alzheimer's disease to copy the Necker cube. Method: One hundred and seventy elderly participants were randomly selected from the town of Tajiri, northern Japan, and were classified into three groups based on the Clinical Dementia R...

The borderline zone condition between normal aging and dementia is a major issue of concern. Although the term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is popular, its prevalence and neuropsychological features have not been fully investigated. We investigated the prevalence and neuropsychological features for Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5 and MCI. For...

One conception of aging and cognitive deterioration is that cognitive decline becomes common with age, and dementia may be regarded as one extreme of the continuum. An alternative conception is that the cognitive process is spared by the aging process itself and that cognitive functioning of healthy older adults and those with slight cognitive impa...

Vascular dementia (VaD) has been considered to be more prevalent than Alzheimer disease in Japan. However, this might be the result of overdiagnosis stemming from some problematic diagnosis of VaD or of the frequent use of magnetic resonance imaging to detect cerebrovascular disease in older adults. We investigated the prevalence of dementia and th...

We examined the relations between cognitive function and age and education in the normal elderly population. As per the community-based stroke, dementia, and bed confinement prevention in the town of Tajiri, neuropsychological assessments, including the Cognitive Ability Screening Instrument (CASI), were performed for 99 randomly selected normal el...

Difficulty in pantomiming the use of tools is observed in patients with Alzheimer disease. Patients with Alzheimer disease tend to use their body parts as objects when they try to pantomime the use of tools. The body-parts-as-objects phenomenon was thought to consist of appropriate gross movement of patients' arms despite inappropriate patterns of...

Aims: The Benton Visual Form Discrimination test (VFD) is one of the non-verbal tests to assess the capacity for complex visual form discrimination. The purposes of the present study were to investigate the effects of age and education level of the VFD in healthy elderly subjects, rigorously excluding participants with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR...

Knowledge of the prevalence of dementia in different age groups is needed for the planning of a health policy. This study shows the prevalence of dementia and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in elderly people aged 65 years and over, living in the town of Tajiri in the northern part of Japan. They were shown by two cognitive screening test...