Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can often occur together, but clinical identification of these diseases is difficult in such circumstances. Carla Abdelnour, PhD, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, outlines the challenges of identifying DLB in the presence of AD, and opportunities to overcome this. Co-existent AD pathology can cause differences in clinical presentation, disease progression, and brain atrophy that may help to better identify the co-pathology. Firstly, to diagnose DLB, a number of core features must be present and in patients with AD and DLB, the frequency of these core features can change. Secondly, AD/DLB patients tend to show faster rates of disease progression and differences in regional brain atrophy. New advances in biomarkers and assays to detect misfolded ɑ-synuclein, such as the Seed Amplification Assay developed by Dr Abdelnour and her team, could further help to identify AD/DLB patients. This interview took place at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease congress 2022 in San Francisco.
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