Chinese patients with Lewy body dementia had shorter survival and developed complications earlier than those with Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD) are two common forms of dementia. There are still controversies regarding whether LBD patients have a worse clinical course than AD patients.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed all biomarkers that supported AD and LBD patients presenting to the Memory Clinic of Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, between 1 January 2008 and 30 December 2016. Diagnoses of AD and LBD were supported by clinical diagnostic criteria and biomarkers. LBD patients included those with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Baseline demographics, presenting clinical features, degree of cognitive impairment and specified clinical outcomes were compared.

RESULTS

We recruited 31 AD and 25 LBD patients (18 DLB, 7 PDD). When measured from disease onset, LBD patients were noted to have shorter overall survival (p = 0.02) with earlier occurrence of falls (p < 0.001), dysphagia (p < 0.001), pneumonia (p = 0.01), pressure injuries (p = 0.003) and institutionalisation (p = 0.03) than AD patients. Cox regression analyses showed that LBD predicted falls (hazard ratio [HR] 5.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.29-15.01, p < 0.001), dysphagia (HR 10.06, 95% CI 2.50-40.44, p = 0.001), pressure injuries (HR 17.39, 95% CI 1.51-200.10, p = 0.02), institutionalisation (HR 2.72, 95% CI 1.12-6.60, p = 0.03) and death (HR 2.96, 95% CI 1.18-7.42, p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

LBD patients had shorter overall survival with earlier occurrence of pre-specified long-term events compared with AD patients. LBD also independently predicted pre-specified long-term events.