Lewy Body Dementia or LBD or body dementia is not a typical disease but a medical condition that presents some very hard-to-diagnose symptoms. Though it affects millions across the globe, its prevalence is largely misunderstood, often diagnosed as some other form of mental ailment like epilepsy or Alzheimer's. In an overall assessment, it would be fair to say that most medical professionals are still unfamiliar with what LBD represents and how it should be handled.



The term 'body dementia' is very confusing since it doesn't represent any particular disease but the simultaneous presence of two, conditions, i.e. Parkinson's disease along with dementia (i.e. dementia with diagnosed Lewy bodies). What makes the initial diagnosis extremely challenging for most healthcare professionals is that both these conditions have similar, first-stage symptoms. Further, the biological changes arising in the brain due to either of these conditions are very similar-this makes it very hard to even consider that two medical conditions are slowly gaining a foothold at the cellular level, creating damaging delays in the identification of LBD. This is why multiple symptom body-dementia or LBD is referred to as a multi-system disease. The ideal approach towards treating a LBD patient is to seek help from various healthcare professionals, each an expert in this own field of bodily and psychological disorders.



LBD Diagnosis

The diagnostic evaluation needs to be repeated and cross-checked with a team of specialists over a period of time to establish LBD. Identifying Lewy body-dementia is challenging and further differentiating it from Parkinson's among the older patients creates some typical difficulties. A proper diagnostic evaluation should include both, neurological and physical examinations recorded over a sustained period of periodic hospital visits along with a detailed inspection of the patient's family history.

Many physicians insist upon further credentialing the entire process through a detailed neuro-psychological examination and put the patients through multiple tests to gauge their mental status. During the evaluation phase, the patient's mental status in terms of his ability to focus and speak with clear understanding of the situation, along with evaluation of the language and visual-spatial skills is undertaken. In order to clearly identify the overlapping to two medical conditions in LBD, more testing is required in the form of memory and cognitive testing. This is usually accompanied by detailed records of brain imaging, MRI or CT scanning, to identify any overlapping patterns that are usually found among LBD patients. This is further combined with regular blood testing and laboratory studies to ensure that the patient has not developed any underlying symptoms that could further worsen the situation.

Understanding LBD Symptoms

The biggest diagnostic difficulty in establishing LBD is that nearly every patient with this condition presents an individualistic case profile that seldom has any similarity with the recorded LBC profiles. Further, the symptoms gradually mature through several phases, each of which needs to be carefully studied and recorded to establish a pattern of LBD. Further, the testing procedures are often rendered useless since the symptoms fluctuate tremendously in terms of surfacing during a certain part of the day only. There have many cases of individuals who were diagnosed with LBD at a delayed late stage as they kept scoring within the normal range of cognitive assessment scores as they were tested during a particular phase of the day when their brain activity (motor functions) weren't affected by LBD. The most contemporary definition of LBD recognizes three groupings under which all the clinical symptoms are categorized:

Anterior Talofibular Ligament