Diagnosis and Tests

One should follow a complete medical checkup based on specific markers for Alzheimer disease because sometimes Alzheimer may actually be some other ailment that may be treatable and curable. You should see a medical doctor like neurologist and other health professionals with an interest or specialty in Alzheimer disease. The testing for Alzheimer disease is done to exclude all other conditions that present dementia like symptoms.

There are millions of people who are suffering from this Alzheimer's disease, which has no cure. To know whether the person is having Alzheimer's diagnosis is the best option. Diagnosis is the process in which we can say up to 90% whether the person is having Alzheimer's or not. In this diagnosis process entire brain is diagnosed. There are some tests that will be conducted by doctors for Alzheimer's. They are blood tests, urine tests, thyroid tests, pathology testing, CT scan, MRI, PET, memory tests, cognitive tests, etc.

Brain scan: CT scan, MRI, PET are used to diagnosis the brain. By these tests entire brain will be scanned and will be seen whether there are any plaques and tangles present in the brain or not. Brains scan will be conducted to know other causes of dementia other than stroke.

Laboratory tests: laboratory tests such as urine tests, blood tests, are taken to get the information to know the problems other than Alzheimer's that may be causing dementia.

Genetic tests: genetic test is also conducted, as this genetics is one of the risk factor the cause of this Alzheimer's disease. It means that if this Alzheimer's disease affects one person in a family then there is a chance that the other person in same family may get this disease.

Before starting tests the person who is affected by this Alzheimer's test will be asked some questions by the doctor to know the severity of the disease and their mental status. Then laboratory tests are taken. Then brain scan will be taken to know whether there are any tangles and plaques are there in brain. Then tests on memory, listening capacity, lungs tests, heart beat count, etc are also taken.

There is no one diagnostic test, which will confirm whether Alzheimer's affects the person, or not. So many tests are taken to confirm about this disease. There is no cure for this disease. But these tests are made to confirm whether this Alzheimer's disease affects the person or not. There are many symptoms for this disease. It is not compulsory that every will have same symptoms. They may vary from one person to another. Some of the symptoms of this disease are forgetting names of friends and relatives, forgetting things which happened just now, loss of initiative, wandering in nights, poor in making judgments, unable to select their own things, problem in speaking, problem in sleeping, problem in walking, etc.