| Symposium Highlights Memory Problems
St. Louis, Sept. 20, 1999 -- The second Leonard Berg Symposium on Alzheimer’s Disease will bring experts on mild cognitive impairment to St. Louis Oct. 1-2. Speakers will include Ronald C. Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist to former President Reagan, and Peter Seubert, M.D., a leading investigator in the team that recently tested an "Alzheimer vaccine" on mice. The symposium is geared to investigators and health-care professionals who manage elderly persons with memory complaints.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by memory problems that are not severe enough to be classified as Alzheimer’s disease by current standards. But in many instances this condition may be a stepping stone to more serious impairment because people over 65 with MCI are 12 times to 15 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than healthy seniors.
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will hold the symposium at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Clayton, Mo. Sessions will focus on characterization of mild cognitive impairment, possible current and future therapies, and brain-imaging techniques to detect MCI before the appearance of fully developed Alzheimer’s disease.
"This symposium will bring together many nationally and internationally prominent experts in the diagnosis and management of MCI," says organizer John C. Morris, M.D., the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Professor of Neurology and co-director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the School of Medicine and director of the Memory Diagnostic Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "We hope it will help establish a national agenda for understanding pre-Alzheimer conditions such as MCI. That would be a fitting tribute to the research career of Leonard Berg, former director of our ADRC."
The program is as follows:
Friday, Oct. 1
8:30 a.m. John C. Morris, M.D., Washington University in St. Louis: Opening remarks
9 a.m. Ronald C. Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic: Characterization of MCI
9:40 a.m. Martha Storandt, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis: Cognitive function in nondemented aging
10:40 a.m. John C. Morris, M.D., Washington University in St. Louis: Incipient Alzheimer’s disease: Clinical detection
12:50 p.m. Leon J. Thal, M.D., University of California, San Diego: Trial designs and therapeutic agents for MCI
1:30 p.m. Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., University of Pittsburgh: Cholinesterase inhibitors in MCI
2:30 p.m. Peter Seubert, M.D., Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc.: Antiamyloid therapeutic strategies
3:10 p.m. David Knopman, M.D., University of Minnesota: Are we ready to treat MCI? A clinical perspective
3:50 p.m. Panel discussion
4:20 p.m. Reception
Saturday, Oct. 2
9:30 a.m. Martin Rossor, M.D., National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London, U.K.: Structural neuroimaging and cognitive measures in individuals at risk for familial Alzheimer’s disease
10:10 a.m. Eric Reiman, M.D., University of Arizona: Assessing Alzheimer’s disease in the absence of symptoms using functional neuroimaging
11:10 a.m. Marilyn S. Albert, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital: Relating neuroimaging to neuropsychological function in the detection of incipient Alzheimer’s disease
12:20 p.m. John C. Morris, M.D., Washington University in St. Louis: Closing remarks
For more information, see: http://www.adrc.wustl.edu/adrc/symposium.html
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The full-time and volunteer faculty of Washington University School of Medicine are the physicians and surgeons of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC Health System.
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