Lewy body Dementia: What are the challenges of early and accurate diagnosis?

Collectively, Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) including Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) account for the second leading type of dementia following Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Lee et al., 2019). Despite revised consensus criteria, detection rates in routine clinical practice remain poor (Vann Jones & O’Brien, 2013) with cases commonly misdiagnosed as AD (McKeith et al., 2017).

Diagnosis can be challenging due to the presentation of an extensive range of autonomic, motor, sleep, cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms which can vary within a person and between individuals (Taylor et al., 2020). Given the disparity in management and prognosis of LBD compared to other dementias (Fujishiro et al., 2013), the timing and accuracy of diagnosis is of great consequence.