What's on this Page
How is Alzheimers Disease diagnosed?
First, the presence of dementia must be established clearly by clinical criteria and confirmed by neuropsychological testing.
The clinical manifestations usually include impairment of memory and at least one other area of cognition.
There must be no evidence of other systemic or brain disease sufficient to cause the dementia, and the National Institutes of Health criteria suggest basic laboratory studies (which are not all-inclusive) to exclude other disease.
The diagnosis is both a diagnosis of exclusion and a diagnosis based on the establishment of certain characteristic features.
Sources
- Galvin JE, Roe CM, Powlishta KK, Coats MA, Muich SJ, Grant E, et al.: The AD8: a brief informant interview to detect dementia. Neurology 65(4):559-564, 2005.
- Borson S, Scanlan J, Brush M, Vitaliano P, Dokmak A: The mini-cog: a cognitive “vital signs” measure for dementia screening in multi-lingual elderly. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 15(1):1021-1027, 2000.
- Torvik A, Lindboe CF, Rogde S: Brain lesions in alcoholics: a neuropathological study with clinical correlations. J Neurol Sci 56(2-3):233-248, 1982.
- Knopman DS, DeKosky ST, Cummings JL, Chui H, Corey-Bloom J, Relkin N, et al.: Practice parameter: diagnosis of dementia (an evidence-based review). Report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology 56(9):1143-1153, 2001.
