Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) appears to delay the progression of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease, but the effect is short lived, based on the results of a double-blind study of 50 patients published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Dr. Shawn Kile of the Sutter Neuroscience Institute in California and his colleagues assessed 50 participants, aged 50-84 years with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. The patients were administered either 0.4 g/kg of 10% IVIG or 0.9% saline every 2 weeks for a total of five infusions (2 g/kg total dose). Patients’ levels of neurodegeneration were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale, and the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes scale.
At 12 months, 58% of the patients in the placebo group and 33% of those in the IVIG group had converted to Alzheimer’s dementia. At the 24-month follow-up, 72% of cases in the IVIG group and 75% in the placebo group had progressed to dementia.
The observed effect of IVIG was strongest for participants in the earliest stages of mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that early intervention is optimal for slowing cognitive decline, the investigators wrote.
Read the full article here: (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2015 doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2015-311486).