A Simple Guide to Pick Disease, Diagnosis, Treatment and Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Pick Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Pick disease (PD) is a rare brain disorder that produces progressive and irreversible dementia.

This disease is featured by behavioral changes and language deficits with frontal and temporal cortical degeneration.

It is a heterogeneous disorder featuring a range of overlapping medical, genetic, and pathological causes leading to a single phenotypic expression of disease.

It is often a form of frontotemporal dementia and often happens in pre-senile patients.

If the person has dementia, the brain does not function normally.

As a result, the person may have difficulty with behavior, language, judgment, and memory.

Like patients with other types of dementia, the person may have drastic personality changes.

While Alzheimer’s disease can involve many different parts of the brain, Pick disease only affects the frontal and temporal lobes.

The brain’s frontal lobe regulates important aspects of everyday life such as planning, judgment, emotional control, behavior, inhibition, executive function, and multitasking.

The temporal lobe mainly involves language, together with emotional response and behavior.

Frontotemporal dementia is divided into:
Behavioral variant (bvFTD) and
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) subtypes.

PPA is further categorized as:
Non-fluent/agrammatic variant (nfvPPA),
Semantic variant (svPPA), and
Logopenic aphasia.
Motor neuron disease (FTD-MND),
Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP-S), and
Corticobasal syndrome (CBS)

Pick disease (a form of Frontotemporal dementia) is produced by abnormal quantities or types of nerve cell proteins or tau.

These proteins are present in all of the nerve cells.

Tau, transactive response DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) have been determined as the main proteins responsible for Pick disease.

These proteins often accumulate into spherical clumps, termed Pick bodies.

When they collect in nerve cells of the brain’s frontal and temporal lobe, they cause the cells to die.

This induces the brain tissue to atrophy (shrink), leading to the symptoms of dementia.

Doctors do no know what causes these abnormal proteins to develop.

Behavior and personality alterations are the most significant early symptoms in Pick’s disease.

Behavioral and emotional symptoms may be felt as:
Abrupt mood changes
Compulsive or inappropriate behavior
Depression-like symptoms, such as no interest in daily activities
Withdrawal from social interaction
Difficulty keeping a job
Poor social skills
Poor personal hygiene
Repetitive behavior

Language and neurological changes may be felt as:
Reduced writing or reading skills
Echoing, or repeating what has been said
Inability to speak, difficulty speaking, or trouble understanding speech
Shrinking vocabulary
Accelerated memory loss
Physical weakness

Pick disease can also happen at an earlier age (as young as 20 years old) than Alzheimer’s

Standard, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans can reveal typical atrophy of frontal and temporal lobe grey matter.

There is no known cure or treatment that can successfully reduce the progression of FTD.

The doctor can provide antidepressant and antipsychotic medicines to treat emotional and behavioral changes.

Physical therapy and exercise can reduce cognitive deterioration while speech therapy may relieve language deficits in patients with the primary progressive aphasia variants

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Pick Disease
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Dementia
Chapter 8 Alzheimer’s Disease
Epilogue

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005328993

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

A

Simple

Guide

To

Pick Disease,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2022 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Pick Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Pick Disease)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

My diagnosis and treatment capability has improved tremendously from my continued education.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Pick disease

What is Pick disease?

Pick disease (PD) is a rare brain disorder that produces progressive and irreversible dementia.

This disease is featured by behavioral changes and language deficits with frontal and temporal cortical degeneration.

It is a heterogeneous disorder featuring a range of overlapping medical, genetic, and pathological causes leading to a single phenotypic expression of disease.

It is often a form of frontotemporal dementia and often happens in pre-senile patients.

If the person has dementia, the brain does not function normally.

As a result, the person may have difficulty with behavior, language, judgment, and memory.

Like patients with other types of dementia, the person may have drastic personality changes.

While Alzheimer’s disease can involve many different parts of the brain, Pick disease only affects the frontal and temporal lobes.

The brain’s frontal lobe regulates important aspects of everyday life such as planning, judgment, emotional control, behavior, inhibition, executive function, and multitasking.

The temporal lobe mainly involves language, together with emotional response and behavior.

Frontotemporal dementia is divided into:

1. Behavioral variant (bvFTD) and

2. Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) subtypes.

PPA is further categorized as:

1. Non-fluent/agrammatic variant (nfvPPA),

2. Semantic variant (svPPA), and

3. Logopenic aphasia.

4. Motor neuron disease (FTD-MND),

5. Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP-S), and

6. Corticobasal syndrome (CBS)

What are the causes of Pick disease?

Causes

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most frequent cause of early-onset dementia in patients under 65 years of age representing 10% of pathologically confirmed cases.

3% of dementias in patients of any age are due to frontotemporal disease.

While the disorder appears most often in the 5th and 6th decades of life, the start has been reported in patients as young as 30 years and as old as over 70 years.

Pick disease (a form of Frontotemporal dementia) is produced by abnormal quantities or types of nerve cell proteins or tau.

These proteins are present in all of the nerve cells.

Tau, transactive response DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) have been determined as the main proteins responsible for Pick disease.

These proteins often accumulate into spherical clumps, termed Pick bodies.

When they collect in nerve cells of the brain’s frontal and temporal lobe, they cause the cells to die.

This induces the brain tissue to atrophy (shrink), leading to the symptoms of dementia.

Doctors do no know what causes these abnormal proteins to develop.

Researchers have discovered abnormal genes that are linked to Pick disease.

They have also reported the incidence of the disease in related family members.

While most Pick disease presentations are sporadic, the disease is highly heritable, and a family history of dementia has been reported in up to 40% of cases.

10-20% of patients feature genetic mutations with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance (unlike Niemann Pick Disease which has a recessive pattern of inheritance.

3 main genes have been reported as causes of Frontotemporal dementia, microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), progranulin (GRN), and C9orf72 with a