"Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease"

Hearing the news that a family member has received an Alzheimers diagnosis can be an emotionally devastating moment in anyone's life. However, before the Alzheimer's diagnosis can be given to the patient and their family, the patient must undergo a variety of laboratory tests, such as medical assessments and laboratory measurements.

At this time, there is no single test that can accurately diagnose Alzheimers Disease. Doctors use a variety of assessments and examinations to make a final diagnosis.

-Memory testing

-Brain scans

-Laboratory and genetic testing

Alzheimers Diagnosis involves taking a thorough history, doing a physical exam, running lab tests, and administering various mental status examinations. All of these tests and procedures were done to make sure it wasn't something other than Alzheimer's disease. Such battery of tests can take anywhere from one day to several weeks in order to ensure accuracy and the proper diagnosis. To make matters even more confusing, there were two sets of guidelines for Alzheimers diagnosis.

NINDS-ADRDA (National Institute for Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorder Association) Guidelines for Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease

The NINDS-ADRDA guidelines say that you can say someone probably has Alzheimers disease if she has dementia with progressive problems with memory and at least one other area of brain functioning. The client has to be between 40 and 90 years of age, and they can't find anything else wrong.

DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th version) Guidelines for Alzheimers Diagnosis

The DSM guidelines say that you can say someone probably has Alzheimer's disease if they have memory problems plus problems speaking, moving or understanding the information he receives from his senses. The problems must have started gradually and be progressively getting worse, to the point that he is having trouble with work or social situations, and they can't find anything else wrong.

Alzheimers Test