An 80-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease presented with a 4-year decline in episodic memory. Over years, the patient had gradual decline in memory, developed hesitant speech and impaired organizational skills. His family stated that he could not recognize his family members and common objects over past 6 months. His current therapy was donepezil, rivastigmine and memantine. He was a known hypertensive for 40 years with no history of psychological disease or any family history of alzheimer’s disease. Clinical evaluation revealed inability to answer questions correctly or fluently. His MRI demonstrated severe volume loss of the whole brain while wide depositions of β amyloid in the dorsal cortex were seen on PET scan. The patient was on end-stage of Alzheimer’s disease.
Results
- As the disease advances, alzheimer’s can lead to sever forms of cognitive impairment and physical disabilities in daily life. A few therapeutic options exist for the symptomatic management of patients. Evidences suggest improved cognitive function in patients of alzheimer’s disease with deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert. Nucleus basalis of Meynert is known to have a positive impact on sensory gating into memory and a beneficial effect on the recognition of familiar stimuli. Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert might increase Ach release and improve cognitive function, even in patients with severely compromised nucleus basalis of Meynert.
d) Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM-DBS)
- As the disease advances, alzheimer’s can lead to sever forms of cognitive impairment and physical disabilities in daily life. A few therapeutic options exist for the symptomatic management of patients. Evidences suggest improved cognitive function in patients of alzheimer’s disease with deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert. Nucleus basalis of Meynert is known to have a positive impact on sensory gating into memory and a beneficial effect on the recognition of familiar stimuli. Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert might increase Ach release and improve cognitive function, even in patients with severely compromised nucleus basalis of Meynert.
