Sex differences for co-morbid pathologies and co-morbidity impact on symptom
profile in Lewy body dementia 
   Lead Investigator:    Ece Bayram
   Institution      :    University of California San Diego
   E-Mail           :    drecebayram@gmail.com
   Proposal ID      :    1324



   Proposal Description:
   The proposed research aims to evaluate sex differences in Lewy body dementia. Two study groups will be men and women with neocortical Lewy body pathology. These men and women will be compared for cognitive, behavioral and motor profiles, as well as pathology data on Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease, substantia nigra neuron loss and hippocampal sclerosis. For subjects     with longitudinal data, progression over time will be compared between the groups. The mediation effect of Alzheimer's disease pathology on neuropsychological profile will be explored. Clinical diagnosis, age, age of disease onset from the baseline visit will also be incorporated to the  analysis. The aims for this research are: (1) To evaluate symptom profile, progression rate, and co-morbid pathology differences between men and women with Lewy body pathology, (2) To investigate mediating effect of Alzheimer's disease pathology on symptom profile separately in men and women with Lewy body  pathology. The objectives of this research is to test whether Lewy body pathology leads to a worse symptom profile in men and if Alzheimer's disease pathologies are more effective on the symptom profile in women compared to men with Lewy body pathology. As there is a high frequency of co-morbid pathologies in Lewy body dementia, this research can determine how these co-morbidities       impact the symptoms. As Alzheimer's disease pathology interacts with sex, with a worse cognitive decline in women, co-morbid Alzheimer's disease pathology can impact women more than men for patients with Lewy body dementia. This research will evaluate the effect of co-morbidities in Lewy body dementia based on sex.