Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: Is there currently a medical laboratory test that can accurately diagnose the presence of Alzheimer's disease?
Although Alzheimer's disease has received a great deal of attention in our modern world, the diagnosis of it still is based on a number of factors. Doctors who specialize in its treatment can correctly diagnose the disease 80 to 90 percent of the time. They need to study the complete person, as any biological evidence cannot be obtained while the person is still living. In the brain of a person with AD there are plaques and tangles, but these can only be found by viewing a piece of tissue from the brain under a microscope. This would be a painful and risky procedure to do while a person is alive. However, doctors can say that a person has "probable" AD. To arrive at this
diagnosis they study the following items that go together to make up an individual profile of the patient.
1. Medical History - What is the person's general health? Past medical problems?
Are there any problems the person has is carrying out the normal day-to-day activities?
2. Medical Tests - Although there is not a definitive medical test for AD the doctor will want to run a battery of blood and urine tests. Sometimes a small amount of spinal fluid may help in the diagnosis. Hopefully there will be an accurate lab test to determine whether a person has AD, or another illness.
3. Neuropsychological Tests - Memory, attention, counting, and problem solving all will be tested to help the doctor narrow down to the specific problem the patient has.
4. Brain Scans - This noninvasive test, a scan of the brain, takes a picture of the brain. This picture will allow the doctor to tell if there is anything abnormal going on in the brain -- possible seizure or stroke damage could show up. This scan -- that is totally painless -- combined with some of the other medical tests can help the doctor rule out other possible problems such as thyroid glad problems, drug reactions, brain tumors, blood vessel disease and depression. All of those can cause AD-like symptoms, and many of them can be treated successfully!
5. Interviewing Family and Friends - This is a very important element in the "probable" diagnosis of AD. Family members and good friends would be able to tell exactly what kind of problems the person is having -- problems the patient probably isn't even aware of.
