The Clinical Core of the Massachusetts ADRC is housed in the Memory Disorders Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The goal of the Clinical Core is to examine, diagnosis and enroll into the ADRC Patient registry men and women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds with AD and related dementias, including frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other parkinsonian syndromes including progressive supranuclear palsy and cortical basoganglionic degeneration, along with individuals with mild cognitive impairment who are at heightened risk to develop AD. Associated goals of the Center are to characterize the neurological, psychiatric and neuropsychological features of dementia in these patient groups and to refer these carefully evaluated patients to specific research projects funded within the ADRC, as well as to national and local research projects. To this historical mission, we have added two new components for genetics and neuroimaging. The Genetic subcore will consolidate separate elements of existing ADRC genetic programs, including the systematic collection of family history on all patients who attend the Clinical Core, genetic counseling, ascertainment of subjects for local and national genetic research projects and DNA banking and genetic analyses. The Neuroimaging subcore will standardize the collection of MR, SPECT and PET images from individuals who attend the Core, refine and apply to these images automated quantitative analytic programs developed at MGH, and facilitate collaboration with MGH investigators and other local and national ADC projects. The Clinical Core supports a wide range of research funded outside of the Clinical Core, including research projects linked to the ADRC (i.e., Project 3) as well as local and national collaborative research.
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