Alzheimer's Disease Latest News And Updates: Memory Loss Do Not Always Indicate Alzheimer's?

Many people have always thought that Alzheimer's disease is characterized by memory loss. However, a new study suggests that relying on this notion may cause a misdiagnosis, or worst miss other forms of dementia that do not affect the memory during the initial phase.

According to a report, Northwestern Medicine researchers said that there are other kinds of Alzheimer's disease, and some of them do not initially affect the memory. Alzheimer's can cause problems with language, change an individual's behavior, personality and judgment or even affect someone's concept of where objects are in space.

"These individuals are often overlooked in clinical trial designs and are missing out on opportunities to participate in clinical trials to treat Alzheimer's," said first study author Emily Rogalski, associate professor at Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center. Dr. Rogalski also said that if the disease affects the personality, it may cause a person to have lack of inhibition. An example she gave is, "Someone who was very shy may go up to grocery store clerk - who is a stranger - and try to give her a hug or kiss," reported psychcentral.com.

Researchers also explained that the symptoms exhibited by a person will always depend on the part of the brain affected by Alzheimer's, and the only way to find out which part is affected is through an autopsy. However, the researchers also pointed out that these individuals are not given so much attention in clinical trials and often miss out on chances to join in the experiments created to treat Alzheimer's. "Such individuals are often excluded because they don't show memory deficits, inspite of sharing the same disease (Alzheimer's) that's causing their symptoms," Rogalski said.

During the study, the researchers identified the clinical features of a person with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) which is a rare dementia that causes progressive deterioration in language abilities because of Alzheimer's disease. During the early stages of PPA, memory and other cognitive abilities are relatively unharmed. Indian Express also reported that PPA can be caused either by Alzheimer's disease or another disease in the spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases called frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Alzheimer's disease was ruled out in this study using amyloid PET imaging or confirmed by autopsy.

Meanwhile, the study shows that knowing an individual's clinical symptoms is not enough to diagnose if someone has PPA because of Alzheimer's disease or another type of neurodegenerative disease. The researchers also said that it is very important to use biomarkers like, amyloid PET imaging to identify the neuropathological cause.

Scientists in the study observed individuals during the mild stages of language loss due to Alzheimer's disease and described their brain atrophy based on MRI scans and their results on cognitive tests. "We wanted to describe these individuals to raise awareness about the early clinical and brain features of PPA to develop metrics which would advocate for their inclusion in clinical trials targeting Alzheimer's disease," Rogalski said.