Background/Aims: Language dysfunction is a crucial feature of brain disorders. This study investigated language dysfunction in patients with dementia with or without parkinsonism by using an informant-based simple questionnaire. Methods: Language dysfunction in normal controls (NCs), and patients with Parkinson disease (PD), Parkinson disease dementia (PDD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), or Alzheimer disease (AD) were analyzed and compared. Results: A total of 1,662 individuals were studied: 285 NCs, 157 PD patients, 161 PDD patients, 248 DLB patients, and 811 AD patients. Patients with PD displayed higher frequency of language dysfunction in several language domains than NC. Patients with PDD and DLB showed higher frequency of language dysfunction in most of the language domains than those with AD. A composite score of our simple questionnaire was comparable with the score for the language domain of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) in different stages of dementia due to Lewy body diseases or not. Conclusion: Our study showed that the informant-based simple questionnaire is a practical screening tool and is comparable with the language subscale of CASI. This tool can be applied in clinical practice and in the registration platform for rapid language dysfunction screening.

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It is known that moderation of alcohol intake reduces blood pressure, although the exact mechanism has not yet been established. To clarify the hypotensive mechanism of alcohol reduction, we evaluated the change in cellular magnesium and sodium metabolism during alcohol reduction in mild hypertensive patients. We measured intraerythrocyte sodium and magnesium, intraplatelet free magnesium concentrations, and erythrocyte ouabain-sensitive 22Na efflux rate constant (Kos) in 17 mild essential hypertensive patients regularly consuming more than 40 g/day of alcohol, before and after 4 weeks of alcohol reduction, and 12 age-matched nondrinking hypertensives. Intraerythrocyte magnesium (P < .01) and intraplatelet free magnesium (P < .05) concentrations were significantly lower in drinkers than in nondrinkers. In drinkers, advice to reduce alcohol intake for 4 weeks resulted in a reduction in self-reported alcohol consumption from 461.7 to 71.6 g/week, a significant fall in both supine systolic blood pressure (136.3 +/- 10.8 to 130.8 +/- 11.3 mm Hg, P < .001) and supine diastolic blood pressure (85.1 +/- 8.6 to 82.6 +/- 8.7 mm Hg, P < .05). The fall in mean blood pressure correlated positively with the reduction in weekly alcohol consumption. Intraerythrocyte magnesium and Kos were increased (P < .05, P < .01, respectively), while intraerythrocyte sodium was decreased (P < .01). The increase in intraerythrocyte magnesium correlated negatively with the fall in mean blood pressure and positively with the increase in Kos, which correlated negatively with the decrease in intraerythrocyte sodium.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

To elucidate the antihypertensive mechanism of oral calcium supplementation in salt-dependent hypertension, we investigated the hypertensive activity of plasma from DOCA-salt hypertensive rats fed with (DS-Ca) or without (DS) a high calcium diet. Four weeks of calcium supplementation (4% CaCl2) attenuated the blood pressure increase in DS rats. Intravenous bolus injection of dialyzed plasma (1.0-kDa cutoff) from DS rats to normotensive rats resulted in a sustained elevation in blood pressure, whereas that from DS-Ca rats did not. As the endothelin concentration was not different between the two groups, the circulating hypertensive substance in DS rats may be identical to parathyroid hypertensive factor (PHF) and the inhibition of its expression by calcium may be involved in the hypotensive mechanism of high calcium diets in salt-dependent hypertension.