Characterization of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and mild cognitive impairment using the Lewy body dementia module (LBD-MOD).

INTRODUCTION

The National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Research Center program added the Lewy body dementia module (LBD-MOD) to the Uniform Data Set to facilitate LBD characterization and distinguish dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD). We tested the performance of the LBD-MOD.

METHODS

The LBD-MOD was completed in a single-site study in 342 participants: 53 controls, 78 AD, and 110 DLB; 79 mild cognitive impairment due to AD (MCI-AD); and 22 MCI-DLB.

RESULTS

DLB differed from AD in extrapyramidal symptoms, hallucinations, apathy, autonomic features, REM sleep behaviors, daytime sleepiness, cognitive fluctuations, timed attention tasks, and visual perception. MCI-DLB differed from MCI-AD in extrapyramidal features, mood, autonomic features, fluctuations, timed attention tasks, and visual perception. Descriptive data on LBD-MOD measures are provided for reference.

DISCUSSION: The LBD-MOD provided excellent characterization of core and supportive features to differentiate DLB from AD and healthy controls while also characterizing features of MCI-DLB.