How to check for Alzheimer's syndrome

Diseases like Alzheimer's syndrome mostly occur in middle-aged and elderly patients. Once it occurs, it will cause irreversible damage, which will cause the patient's body to gradually fail, and the patient's memory will become worse and worse. Slowly, the patient will not even remember his relatives and friends, and his intelligence will be greatly affected. This will cause psychological damage to the patient. Therefore, it is best to detect and treat it early to better alleviate the patient's pain.

examine

1. Neuropsychological testing

Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE): It is concise in content, takes a short time to measure, and is easily accepted by the elderly. It is currently the most common scale for clinically measuring the degree of intellectual impairment of this disease. The total score of the scale is related to the level of cultural education. If illiteracy is ≤17 points; primary school level is ≤20 points; secondary school level is ≤22 points; and university level is ≤23 points, it indicates cognitive impairment. Further detailed neuropsychological testing should be conducted to assess various cognitive functions including memory, executive function, language, practical and visual-spatial abilities. For example, the AD Assessment Scale-Cognitive Part (ADAS-cog) is an 11-item cognitive ability test battery specifically designed to detect changes in the severity of AD, but is mainly used in clinical trials.

Assessment of daily living ability: For example, the ADL scale can be used to assess the degree of impairment in patients' daily living functions. The scale consists of two parts: one is the physical self-care ability scale, which measures the patient's ability to take care of himself (such as dressing, undressing, combing hair and brushing teeth, etc.); the other is the tool use ability scale, which measures the patient's ability to use daily life tools (such as making phone calls, taking the bus, cooking for oneself, etc.). The latter are more susceptible to cognitive decline in the early stages of the disease.

Assessment of behavioral and psychiatric symptoms (BPSD): including the Behavioral Pathology Rating Scale for Alzheimer's Disease (BEHAVE-AD), the Neuropsychiatric Symptom Inventory (NPI), and the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI). Baseline assessments are often required based on information provided by informed persons. They can not only detect the presence or absence of symptoms, but also evaluate the frequency and severity of symptoms, and the burden on caregivers. Repeated assessments can also monitor treatment effectiveness. The Cornell Depression Scale for Dementia (CSDD) focuses on evaluating the agitation and depression manifestations of dementia, and the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale can be used to evaluate depressive symptoms in AD. CSDD has higher sensitivity and specificity but is not related to the severity of dementia.

2. Hematological examination

It is mainly used to detect existing concomitant diseases or complications, identify potential risk factors, and exclude other causes of dementia. Including blood routine, blood sugar, blood electrolytes including blood calcium, kidney function and liver function, vitamin B12, folic acid level, thyroid hormone and other indicators. Serological tests for syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus, and Borrelia burgdorferi should be performed on high-risk groups or those with clinical symptoms.