PD affects one million Americans . Lewy bodies occur in dopamine and non-dopamine cells outside the brainstem . PD-dementia is characterized by a loss of memory and a marked decline in intellectual and cognitive abilities. At autopsy the cortical and brainstem cells of PD-dementia patients contain Lewy bodies. Diffuse Lewy Body Disease is PD beginning with memory loss and a decline in intellectual and cognitive abilities rather than PD beginning with rigidity, tremor, and slowness of movement.
Lewy bodies are also present in cells in the cortex of AD patients.
Diffuse Lewy Body Disease. Alzheimer Disease, Alzheimer Disease with Lewy bodies, Diffuse Lewy Body Disease, PD with dementia , and PD without dementia are probably a continuum, one disease presenting differently but, in time, coming together. Each protein is produced or manufactured inside the cell s nucleus. Each gene, made-up of a segment of DNA, writes or transcribes it s information onto RNA, a moveable molecule. The information written or transcribed onto RNA, is then translated into proteins.