Health encyclopaedia

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease cannot be diagnosed with total certainty during someone's lifetime. It is characterised by damage ('plaques' and 'tangles') seen in and around brain cells.

The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease involves making a distinction between this and other forms of dementia. Dementia is a syndrome of failing memory and progressive loss of intellectual power owing to continuing degenerative disease of the brain. Between half and three-quarters of all cases diagnosed as dementia are due to Alzheimer’s disease.

There may be other conditions causing dementia and which can be treated. Standard diagnostic tests include intelligence testing, a full medical history, careful examination, and a computerised tomography (CT scan) of the brain.

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