Xinhua
Alzheimer's redefined with new criteria in U.S.
BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Guidelines for diagnosing the Alzheimer's have been updated for the first time in 27 years in the United States.
The new criteria, released Tuesday by the U.S. National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Assn, recognize the disease as a continuum of mental decline and split it into three stages: early brain changes, mild cognitive impairment and full-blown Alzheimer's.
The updated guidelines, compared with the ones in 1984, reflect the more modern view: Alzheimer's can start progressing up to 10 years before signs of dementia appear.
Perhaps the biggest change is the way doctors will diagnose Alzheimer's dementia, said Gary Kennedy, a geriatric psychiatrist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
"The real new component here is you need not have memory impairment to have Alzheimer's dementia. They are ratcheting down the dementia criteria," media report quoted Kennedy as saying.
"If you're having trouble making plans, have problems adapting to changes in your environment, or have lapses that impair your social involvement with others, you may have Alzheimer's disease even if your memory is not so bad," Kennedy said.
More than 26 million people in the world have Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.
(Agencies)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-04/20/c_13837689.htm
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