Alzheimer’s disease affects millions and experts are struggling to find how to determine who is at risk for this degenerative brain disease. Research has recently focused on screening for Alzheimer’s disease in hopes early detection may help improve treatment and family support.
Screening for Alzheimer’s normally focuses upon warning signs such as memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks and confusion with time or place. Often these symptoms are mistaken as part of normal aging but in fact signal the onset of Alzheimer’s.
As part of regular screening for the brain disease, some Alzheimer’s specialists regularly conduct MRI scans to examine the structure of the brain and monitor changes. Identifying shrinking in the memory centre or hippocampus and other areas of the brain may provide clues to the progression of Alzheimer’s normally missed.
Establishing a baseline for Alzheimer’s screening and evaluating a patient’s progression may provide some standard tests doctors can use to determine what is impacting a patient’s memory.
Experts and researchers agree, diagnostic tests for screening for Alzheimer’s need to be developed and may be just around the corner as more and more focus is put on assessing risk.
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