Previous studies investigating this have indeed shown that there appears to be a gradual decrease in the level of inflammatory markers with disease progression, reaching levels below healthy in severe disease.6 18 However, although chronic inflammation appears to decrease with disease severity, acute inflammation still likely has an impact on the rate of decline, as it has been shown that acute increases in TNF-alpha in patients with dementia predict more rapid disease progression.2 Here, TNF is linked to dementia.