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P4‐357: Switching from oral cholinesterase inhibitors to the rivastigmine transdermal patch: Clinical data from two randomized trials
Author(s) -
Brannan Stephen,
Tekin Sibel,
Koumaras Barbara,
Meng Xiangyi
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.2428
Subject(s) - rivastigmine , transdermal patch , tolerability , medicine , nausea , adverse effect , anesthesia , vomiting , placebo , donepezil , population , pharmacology , transdermal , dementia , disease , alternative medicine , pathology , environmental health
examined brain activation in a group of mild AD patients after a 3 month open-label treatment with Galantamine. The objective was to examine the changes in brain activation through treatment using visual processing tasks. There were two tasks to test brain function along both visual pathways. Methods: The first task was a face matching task to test the activation along the ventral visual pathway and the second task was a location matching task, to test neuronal function along the dorsal pathway. Brain activation was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results: Six AD patients completed the study and the analysis was performed with data from 5 patients, as the data from a 6 patient contained fMRI-related artifacts. There were no differences in task performance and in the cognitive scores of the CERAD battery before and after treatment. In the location matching task, we found a statistically significant decrease in activation along the dorsal visual pathway after galantamine treatment. Conclusions: A previous study found that AD patients had higher activation in the location matching task compared to healthy controls. There were no differences in activation for the face matching task after treatment. Our data indicate that treatment with galantamine leads to more efficient visual processing of stimuli or changes the compensatory mechanism in the AD patients.