Talk Title: Can We Begin Preventing Some Dementias Now?
Date and Time: Tuesday 5 March 2019 at 1pm – 2pm.
Light refreshments will be provided from 2pm – 2:30pm.
Location:
NeuRA, Level 3 John and Betty Lynch Seminar Room
Margarete Ainsworth Building
Barker Street (cnr Easy St)
Randwick NSW 2031
Australia
Pathophysiological studies suggest a close link between Alzheimer and cerebrovascular disease. A hypothesis free, data driven analysis of the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Study (ADNI) identified the first pathological biomarkers in Late Onset Alzheimer Disease (LOAD) were vascular dysregulation, a surprising and promising finding. Clinical studies also suggest that some dementia might be preventable. The FINGER Study showed for the first time that multiple interventions can result in cognitive improvement among individuals at risk of developing dementia, even when they are APOe4 positive. A Swedish study involving 80,948 patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) showed that anticoagulation decreases the risk of dementia by 48%. Targeting high blood pressure to a systolic of 120 mmHg compared to 140 mmHg results in a 19% reduction of the risk of mild cognitive impairment. Population, clinical and pathophysiological studies suggest that we can begin preventing some dementias now. Meetings at the World Health Summit in Berlin in 2018 have produced a scientific blueprint for “Preventing dementia by preventing stroke”. The time has come not only to recognize the dementia tsunami, but to do something more about it.
About Professor Vladimir Hachinski:
Professor Vladimir Hachinski, CM, MD, FRCPC, DSc, FRSC, Doctor honoris causaX4 is Distinguished University Professor, Professor of Neurology & Epidemiology, past Richard & Beryl Ivey Chair, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Western University, Canada. He graduated with an MD from the University of Toronto, trained in internal medicine and neurology in Montreal and Toronto and in research in London, U.K. and Copenhagen. He pioneered with Dr. John W. Norris the world’s first successful acute stroke unit, now the standard of care. He coined the term brain attack to stress the urgency of stroke and discovered the key role of the brain’s insula in control of the heart that when awry, can lead to sudden death. He is a leading advocate, contributor and thought leader of the vascular (treatable) component of dementia, crystallizing the concepts and coining the terms multi-infarct dementia, leukoaraiosis, brain at risk stage, vascular cognitive impairment, devising the eponymic Ischemic Score that identifies the treatable component (over 3700 citations). In 2008 he was named to the Order of Canada. In 2010, he received the Ontario Premier’s Discovery Award in the Life Sciences & Medicine for “ground breaking research on the relationship between stroke and Alzheimer disease”. He is past President of the World Federation of Neurology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2016 he was awarded its McLaughlin Medal. In 2017 he received the Prince Mahidol Award and in 2018 was awarded the Killam Prize in Health Sciences and was inducted in the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
