Mielke, Michelle

Objectives To study the association between multi-morbidity percentiles, which is a measure of clinical aging, and interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Methods Participants 50 to 95 years of age from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging were assigned age- and sex-specific multi-morbidity percentiles using look-up tables that were reported previously (n = 1646). Percentiles were divided into quintiles for analysis. Plasma IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α levels were measured in 1595 participants. Median inflammatory marker levels were compared across multi-morbidity quintiles using nonparametric tests. Results People with higher multi-morbidity percentiles had significantly higher IL-6 and TNF-α levels compared with those with lower multi-morbidity percentiles. Tests for trend across five multi-morbidity quintiles were significant among women for IL-6 and among participants 70 years of age or older for IL-6 and TNF-α. IL-10 was not associated with multi-morbidity percentiles. Conclusions Multi-morbidity percentiles may be a useful clinical index of biological age for future studies, particularly in women and people 70 years of age and older.

There has been no comparison of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease dementia (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We identified patients with mild dementia who met criteria for these disorders who also had the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) completed. The sample included 17 bvFTD, 111 AD, and 31 DLB. An ESS score ≥10 was considered abnormal and consistent with EDS. Analyses with age and sex as covariates revealed higher mean ESS scores for DLB compared to the other groups (DLB 13.9 [5], bvFTD 9.6 [8], AD 8.8 [5], P < .05). An ESS score ≥10 was significantly more likely to occur in DLB compared to bvFTD or AD (DLB 81% vs bvFTD 47% vs AD 45%, P < .01). In patients with mild dementia, EDS is greatest in DLB and comparably lower in bvFTD and AD.