The 7 Minute Screen appears highly sensitive to AD and may be useful in helping to make initial distinctions between patients experiencing cognitive changes related to the normal aging process and those experiencing cognitive deficits related to dementing disorders such as AD. It has reasonable interrater and test-retest reliability, can be administered in a brief period, and requires no clinical judgment and minimal training.

No abstract

Defects in the genes coding for the sarcoglycan proteins are limited to patients with Duchenne-like and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy with normal dystrophin and occur in 11 percent of such patients.

Proteinaceous deposits are occasionally encountered in surgically obtained biopsies of the nervous system. Some of these are amyloidomas, although the precise nature of other cases remains uncertain. We studied 13 cases of proteinaceous aggregates in clinical specimens of the nervous system. Proteins contained within laser microdissected areas of interest were identified from tryptic peptide sequences by liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Immunohistochemical studies for immunoglobulin heavy and light chains and amyloidogenic proteins were performed in all cases. Histologically, the cases were classified into three groups: 'proteinaceous deposit not otherwise specified' (PDNOS) (n ¼ 6), amyloidoma (n ¼ 5), or 'intracellular crystals' (n ¼ 2). LC-MS/MS demonstrated the presence of l, but not k, light chain as well as serum amyloid P in all amyloidomas. l-Light-chain immunostaining was noted in amyloid (n ¼ 5), although demonstrable monotypic lymphoplasmacytic cells were seen in only one case. Conversely, in PDNOS k, but not l, was evident in five cases, both light chains being present in a single case. In three cases of PDNOS, a low-grade B-cell lymphoma consistent with marginal zone lymphoma was present in the brain specimen (n ¼ 2) or spleen (n ¼ 1). Lastly, in the 'intracellular crystals' group, the crystals were present within CD68 þ macrophages in one case wherein k-light chain was found by LC-MS/MS only; the pathology was consistent with crystalstoring histiocytosis. In the second case, the crystals contained immunoglobulin G within CD138 þ plasma cells. Our results show that proteinaceous deposits in the nervous system contain immunoglobulin components and LC-MS/MS accurately identifies the content of these deposits in clinical biopsy specimens. LC-MS/MS represents a novel application for characterization of these deposits and is of diagnostic utility in addition to standard immunohistochemical analyses.

Older coronary patients successfully improve peak aerobic capacity after 3 and 12 months of supervised aerobic conditioning compared with control subjects. The mechanism of the increase in peak aerobic capacity is associated almost exclusively with peripheral skeletal muscle adaptations, with no discernible improvements in cardiac output or calf blood flow.