This proposal describes the establishment of an Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Core unit at Northwestern University Medical School for the purpose of enhancing institutional initiatives related to the diagnosis, pathophysiology, molecular biology and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. To accomplish our goals, we will recruit and examine patients and nondemented control subjects and follow them at 6 month intervals. Every six months the neurological and neuropsychological examinations will be repeated and patients' caregivers will be interviewed in the context of """"""""therapeutic encounters."""""""" Information obtained from these evaluations will be entered into a database maintained on-site. The follow-up visits will provide continuity of care and will identify cognitive or behavioral changes that might require alternative management strategies. Commitments for brain autopsy will be solicited. Patients and control subjects will be contacted episodically by investigators of projects approved by the Northwestern ADCC Executive Committee and will sign separate informed consent forms for projects in which they agree to participate. A minority outreach program will actively target a population that is underserved with respect to up-to-date AD care and will recruit patients for participation in the Clinical Core.
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