With dementia, people may have a group of thinking and social symptoms that interferes with daily functioning.
Not a specific disease, dementia is a group of conditions characterized by impairment of at least two brain functions, such as memory loss and judgment.
Dementia symptoms include forgetfulness, limited social skills, and thinking abilities so damaged that it interferes with daily functioning.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia.
A recent study from UCLA found the probabilities that a person will develop Alzheimer’s disease dementia based on age, gender, and the results of biomarker tests.
This can detect the presence of specific protein fragments in the brain and spinal fluid or brain cell changes linked with the disease.
Researchers have identified new ways to detect the earliest biological signs of Alzheimer’s disease during the past decade.
These early signs, which are detected by biomarkers, may be present before a person starts to exhibit physical symptoms.
What biomarker screening doesn’t reveal, however, is how likely it is that a person who tests positive will eventually develop dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
In the study, the team used data from previous studies that tracked the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in thousands of people and included that information in a computer model that also incorporated published U.S. death rates.
They found, for example, that a 60-year-old woman without any biomarkers for Alzheimer’s has about a 20 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
A woman of the same age will have a 96 percent chance if she already has shown some decline in memory and thinking skills and if biomarker screening has detected amyloid protein and neurodegeneration in her brain.
Men have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia because their average lifespan is shorter.
A 60-year-old man with no biological signs of Alzheimer’s, for example, has about a 14 percent risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia, according to the paper.
The team says interventions to slow the progression of the disease could strongly lower a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
The study was conducted by Ron Brookmeyer et al and published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
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