Memory loss is Alzheimer's disease? Diagnosis pays attention to these 4 points

One

The clinical manifestations should be distinguished

• Mainly cognitive impairment, mental and behavioral abnormalities, and decreased social life functioning
  .
  

• Changes in life functioning: early manifestations are mainly manifested as near memory decline
  .
  As the disease progresses, the signs of impairment become more apparent
  .
  Terminally ill patients need to be completely cared for
  by others in all aspects of their lives.
  

  
  

• Mental and behavioral symptoms: Mental and behavioral changes will occur in the early stage, such as lack of initiative, reduced activity, loneliness, selfishness, reduced interest in the surrounding environment, more cold to the people around them, even indifference to relatives, emotional instability, irritability
  .
  Further damage will worsen psychobehavioral symptoms, and fragmentary hallucinations and delusions (mostly theft and jealousy) may occur; roaming or going out without purpose; Sleep rhythm disorder, some patients will have day and night reversal; Picking up collected scraps; may manifest as hyperactive instincts, such as decompression and overeating; Sometimes agitated and even aggressive behavior
  can occur.
  

• Cognitive impairment: preceded by forgetting, it will subsequently affect almost all cognitive domains, including computing, orientation, visuospace, executive function, comprehension generalization, etc.
  , and aphasia, agnosia, and apraxia
  will also occur.
  

Two

What are the key points of diagnosis?

• insidious onset, progressive aggravation, impairment of work and daily life functions;

• cognitive impairment mainly amnesia, as well as progressive impairment of non-amnesic domains such as language function, visual space, executive function, etc.
  ;

• Abnormal changes
  in personality, mental activity, and behavior.
  

• Other common neurological and psychiatric disorders in old age, such as delirium, senile depressive disorder, senile psychosis, central nervous system infection and inflammation, vascular cognitive impairment, and degenerative diseases such as Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia are excluded
  .
  

Three

What are the auxiliary inspection methods?

• Complete physical examination, including neurological
  .
  

• Psychiatric examination
  .
  

• Cognitive Assessment Cognitive Function Screening (Simplified Intelligent Mental State Test Scale or Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale), Life Ability Assessment, Dementia Severity Assessment, Overall Assessment of Cognitive Function, and Assessments Specific to a Specific Cognitive Dimension such as Memory Assessment (Hopkins Word Learning Test Revised Edition), Language Proficiency Assessment (Boston Named Test), Attention/Working Memory Assessment (Digital Breadth Test), Vivisuospatial Aptitude Assessment (Clock Drawing Test), Executive Function Assessment (Wired Test), etc
  。

• Laboratory tests: in addition to routine biochemical items (which should include homocysteine), the focus should be on excluding thyroid dysfunction, vitamin _B12 and folate deficiency, anemia, neurosyphilis and other medical disorders
  that may affect cognitive function.
  

• EEG: used to exclude Creutz-Jakoh disease, etc
  .
  

• Brain imaging: Magnetic resonance imaging (including hippocampus) is recommended to exclude cerebrovascular disease and clarify the degree of cerebral atrophy, and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography can also be considered to reflect the metabolic level
  of different parts of the brain.
  

• Alzheimer's disease biomarkers: positron emission tomography scan showing positive β amyloid or Tau imaging
  .
  

• Genetic testing: may be tested
  for genetic mutations.