part of the claustrum. The dendritic arborization was decreased.Dendritic spines of the elongated and fusiform neurons were dramat-ically decreased. Mitochondrial alterations and fragmentation of Golgiapparatus were seen in a considerable number of neurons. Synapticalterations were seen in all the parts of the claustrum, although thesynapses were better preserved in the ventroposterior part than in theanterior dorsal one. Neurofibrillary tangles were frequently seen.Reactive astrocytosis was more prominent in the anterior part than inthe middle and the posterior ones. The neuronal loss and the synapticalterations in the claustrum may underline a broad cholinergic deficitin Alzheimer's disease and a substantial decline of cortico-subcorticalcooperative activity in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2013.07.1307

Abstract — WCN 2013No: 3173Topic: 5 — DementiaTelomere length distribution of circulating leukocytes in patientswith Alzheimer's disease

T. Maeda. Kyushu University Beppu Hospital, Beppu, Japan

Background: A telomere is a structure containing repetitive DNAsequence located at the termini of human chromosomes. Telomereattrition has been observed in peripheral blood nuclear cells with aging.Older people have shorter telomeres in their somatic cells than youngpeople. We have analyzed telomere length distribution of normalpopulation and have shown that older people have less long telomeresand more short telomeres than young people. Telomere shortening isalso accelerated by disease conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).Objective: We analyzed telomere length distribution of AD patientsto know if telomere attrition with aging is similar to that with AD interms of telomere length distribution.Patients and methods/material and methods: Female patientswith AD visiting the outpatient clinic of Kyushu University BeppuHospital, from May 2008 through March 2011 were enrolled.Results: Thirty female AD patients were found to have normal meantelomere lengths (control; 6.5 ± 1.0 kb, AD; 6.1 ± 0.8 kb, p = 0.13), adecreased proportional amount of the longest telomeres (N9.4 kb)(control; 30 ± 8%, AD; 24 ± 8%, p = 0.01), increased middle-sizedtelomeres (control; 52 ± 3%, AD 56 ± 6%, p = 0.02), and an unchangedamount of the shortest telomeres (b4.4 kb) (control; 18 ± 8, AD;20 ± 9%, p = 0.37) in their peripheral leukocytes.Conclusion: Though mean TRF of AD patients was not significantlydifferent from that of controls, the longest telomeres (N9.4 kb) weredecreased and the shortest telomeres (b4.4 kb) did not increase,which was different from the aging-associated change of telomerelength distribution. AD-associated telomere attrition was dominantlyobserved in long telomeres.

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2013.07.1308

Abstract — WCN 2013No: 3185Topic: 5 — DementiaNeuropsychiatric symptoms in mild Alzheimer's disease and mildcognitive impairment

M.S. Choi. Neurology, Hallym Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms affect more than a thirdof dementia patients, and are associated with institualization andcaregiver stress or care burden in patients with Alzheimer's disease(AD). They are also common in mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

The early identification of neuropsychiatric symptoms in MCI couldimprove further the prediction of the complex clinical course of thedementia illness, possibly helping improve treatment approaches,and ultimately the prognosis.Methods: We included 101 outpatients of a memory clinic inMaryknoll Hospital (48 AD; 53 amnestic-MCI-multidomain) and25 controls. Categorical disorders of depression and apathy werediagnosed with structured interviews. Symptoms were evaluatedwith the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI). The odds ratios (OR) ofpatients having neuropsychiatric symptoms compared to controls werecalculated with logistic regression, adjusted for sociodemographic andclinical variables.Results: A large proportion of AD (62.5%), amnestic-MCI-multidomain(39.6%) patients had a depressed disorder. Apathy disorder wascommon in AD (68.7%) but less frequent in amnestic MCI-multidomain(9.4%). AD patients were five times more likely to have depressiondisorders (OR= 5.1 , CI = 1.1–23.1) compared to amnestic-MCI-multidomain. After apathy and depression, the most prevalentneuropsychiatric symptoms in AD and MCI were anxiety, agitation,irritability, night-time behaviors, and appetite disturbances.Conclusions: Clinicians should consider the relevance of neuropsy-chiatric symptoms in patients with cognitive disturbances, andincorporate a thorough psychiatric examination in the evaluation ofpatients.

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2013.07.1309

Abstract — WCN 2013No: 3209Topic: 5 — DementiaSemantic verbal fluency categories in Brazilian Portuguese

Y.H. Pedrosa, P.H. Bertolucci. Neurology & Neurosurgery,Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazil

Background: Semantic verbal fluency is widely used as part of thecognitive examination. By far the “animals” category is more oftenused, and the performance for the other categories in the original listof this test is not clear, and some of them could be more useful inspecific situations.Objective: To investigate the performance of healthy Brazilian youngadults in all 56 categories of the original list of semantic fluency.Patients and methods: 600 subjects (300 males and 300 females)were included (300 for São Paulo metropolitan area and 300 wereevenly distributed in the other 5 areas).Material and methods: All subjects are university students, bothgenders, aged 18 to 35 years, free of neurological and psychiatricdiseases were submitted to all 56 semantic categories of the originalverbal fluency test. They were divided by age in two groups (18–25and 26–35) and four groups according to geographic area (São Paulometropolitan area/north–northeast/central–central–south/south Brazil).Results: There was no difference in performance between agegroups, genders and among geographical areas. The perception ofsemantic category difficulty correlated with performance (low,intermediary and high difficulty). Statistical analysis was done usingMann–Whitney for comparison of age ranges for both genders andfor genders for each age range. The procedures were approvedby UNIFESP Institutional Review Board and all subjects signed aninformed consent.Conclusions: Semantic categories have varying levels of difficultyeven for high educated young people. According to necessity categoriescould be selected for specific purposes.

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2013.07.1310

Abstracts / Journal of the Neurological Sciences 333 (2013) e292–e357 e357