Predicting Who Will Develop Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Despite several decades of remarkable progress in research, Alzheimer’s disease remains the most frequent cause of dementia and one of the most disabling diseases among the elderly. Traditionally, the definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease has been reserved for the postmortem examination. A general loss of neurons, the deposition of β-amyloid in the form of dense plaques with neuritic elements and the presence of neurofibrillary tangles that contain intraneuronal paired helical filaments composed of an abnormally phosphorylated tau protein are the defining morphological characteristics of this disease. However, recently it has become evident that the clinical diagnosis is remarkably accurate (Burns et al. 1990; Wade et al. 1987; Risse et al. 1990; Gearing et al. 1995); evident that the clinical diagnosis is remarkably accurate the antemortem diagnosis is correct 90% of the time (Mayeux et al. 1998). A decline in memory and the loss of other cognitive skills in an elderly individual without other medical or psychiatric illness usually lead to a clinical assessment in which the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is considered.