Resonance Imaging
(MRIs) to compare
the brain volumes of
healthy individuals who later develop the disease with
people who
don’t. (Advance Staff,
2004)
Alzheimer’s
disease
cannot be
diagnosed definitively until an
autopsy is performed and the doctors
can see the build up of beta-amyloid
(a protein fragment snipped from a larger
protein
called amyloid precursor
protein) plaque and tangles. They still don’t know
whether the plaques
themselves cause Alzheimer’s disease or they are a
by-product of the
disease process. Doctors at specialized medical centers can
diagnose
Alzheimer’s disease up to 90% of the time using several tools to
diagnose
“probable” Alzheimer’s disease including: “questioning the
person’s
general health, past medical problems and a history of difficulties
performing
daily living skills, tests of memory, problem solving, attention,
counting and
language, medical tests such as tests of blood, urine, or spinal fluid
and
brain scans.” (Alzheimer’s Disease Fact
Sheet)
Early detection
of
Alzheimer’s
takes on increasing importance with
the advent of new medical and
psychological
interventions that can slow the
course of the disease. But for certain
individuals early detection is challenging.
According to the staff at Advance
for Occupational Therapy Practitioners,
“highly intelligent people show
clinical signs of Alzheimer’s later than the
general population. However, once
they do, they decline much faster.
Thought to reflect their greater
mental
reserves, this different pattern may
call for a different approach to
diagnosis.” (Advance Staff, 2004)
Researchers
studied individuals with IQ’s over
120 using higher cut
off levels for cognitive tasks such as word
generation, memory and visual-spatial
processing. Results indicated that with
standard
norms these very intelligent
people would be classified as normal for up to 3
years before demonstrating
a decline on standardized tests. However,
with the
revised tests, investigators
were better able to predict who was at risk for
future decline. Such individuals
may benefit from medications such as
Aracept that
slow down memory loss.
(Advance Staff,
2004)
The Stages of
Alzheimer’s Disease
Many of the above
warning signs are seen in the first or early stages of
Alzheimer’s
disease.
Classifying the stage of the disease might help in
treatment and financial
planning. The following descriptions break the
stages into three
groupings.
Individuals
in
the first or early stage of
Alzheimer’s disease might
demonstrate the following symptoms:
