Methods For Alzheimers testing

Nowadays there are millions of people who are suffering from this Alzheimer’s disease, which has no cure. German scientist Dr. Alois Alzheimer has found this disease in 1907. He found this disease in a woman who died because of sudden illness of brain. He found that there are some tangles and plaques formed in her brain and also nerve cells in some areas of brain are failed. But he has not found the reason for this Alzheimer’s disease to occur. This disease generally occurs at the age of 60 years or more than 60 years.

There are many testing methods for this Alzheimer’s disease. Some of them are physical test, mental tests, physiological tests, etc. These tests are conducted to know whether the person is suffering memory loss as of aging or because of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mental tests: As this Alzheimer’s disease is caused due to fail of nerve cells in brain so tests related to brain are taken. Tests can be conducted by using CT scan, MRI, PET, SPECT, etc. doctors also test Alzheimer’s ability to talk, their memory status, etc.

Physical tests: some physical tests are also taken for this Alzheimer’s disease. Tests like blood pressure, cholesterol test; sugar test, lungs test, etc are taken. As there is some relation between heart and mind.

Genetic testing is also being evaluated as a possible method of Alzheimer testing people who are possessing the AD gene produces a particular protein and much more likely to develop Alzheimer. It is important to note that the presence of this gene does not guarantee that Alzheimer disease will develop, but the drugs which are useless to detect if a person has signs of the amyloid plaques before they become so large that the horrific symptoms of Alzheimer's disease may appear and by which the brain has already been damaged. Such tests which are in development include modified pet scans and protein detection methods. But both approaches are too expensive to be used as mass screening tools.

Apart from such tests however the most important screening test is observational behavioral analysis. People who have known the patient for the long time are the best equipped to determine whether there has been a recent and significant change in mental state. Until Alzheimer testing is perfect then observational data remains the best method of detecting possible dementia. Once a patient is determined to have dementia then he or she should be tested for other possible medical causes of dementia. Often dementia is caused by other diseases or by the decreased oxygen level in the brain. Symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's are often present in patients with clinical depression or other psychological disorders.