Alzheimer's Disease

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Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis & Tests

The first step in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease is to establish that dementia is present. Second, the type of dementia should be clarified. A health care provider will take a history, do a physical exam (including a neurological exam), and do a mental status examination.

Tests may be ordered to help determine if there is a treatable condition that could cause dementia or contribute to the worsening of AD. These conditions include thyroid disease, vitamin deficiency, brain tumor, drug and medication intoxication, chronic infection, and severe depression.

AD usually has a characteristic pattern of symptoms and can be diagnosed by history and physical exam by an experienced clinician. Tests that are often done to evaluate or exclude other causes of dementia include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and blood tests.

In the early stages of dementia, brain image scans may be normal. In later stages, an MRI may show a decrease in the size of the cortex of the brain or of the area of the brain responsible for memory (the hippocampus). While the scans do not confirm the diagnosis of AD, they do exclude other causes of dementia (such as stroke and tumor).

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