How Alzheimer's Disease Works Animation -Causes Stages Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Prevention Video
Alzheimer's disease (AD), also referred to simply as Alzheimer's, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Although the speed of progression can vary, the typical life expectancy following diagnosis is three to nine years.
In a person with Alzheimer disease, neurofibrillary tangles and plaques develop causing both structural and chemical problems in the brain. Alzheimer disease appears to disconnect areas of the brain that normally work together.
It is an incurable disease with a long preclinical period and progressive course. In AD, plaques develop in the hippocampus, a structure deep in the brain that helps to encode memories, and in other areas of the cerebral cortex that are involved in thinking and making decisions. Whether plaques themselves cause AD or whether they are a by-product of the AD process remains unknown. The following image depicts one of the cardinal neuroimaging findings in AD – hippocampal atrophy.
Signs and symptoms
Preclinical Alzheimer disease
A patient with preclinical AD may appear completely normal on physical examination and mental status testing. Specific regions of the brain (eg, entorhinal cortex, hippocampus) are likely to be affected decades before any signs or symptoms appear.
Mild Alzheimer disease: Signs of mild AD can include the following:
Memory loss, Confusion about the location of familiar places, Taking longer to accomplish normal, daily tasks
Trouble handling money and paying bills
Compromised judgment, often leading to bad decisions
Loss of spontaneity and sense of initiative
Mood and personality changes; increased anxiety
Moderate Alzheimer disease: The symptoms of this stage can include the following:
Increasing memory loss and confusion
Shortened attention span
Problems recognizing friends and family members
Difficulty with language; problems with reading, writing, working with numbers
Difficulty organizing thoughts and thinking logically
Inability to learn new things or to cope with new or unexpected situations
Restlessness, agitation, anxiety, tearfulness, wandering, especially in the late afternoon or at night, Repetitive statements or movement; occasional muscle twitches
Hallucinations, delusions, suspiciousness or paranoia, irritability
Loss of impulse control: Shown through behavior such as undressing at inappropriate times or places or vulgar language
Perceptual-motor problems: Such as trouble getting out of a chair or setting the table
Severe Alzheimer disease: Patients with severe AD cannot recognize family or loved ones and cannot communicate effectively. They are completely dependent on others for care, and all sense of self seems to vanish.
Other symptoms of severe AD can include the following:
Weight loss, Seizures, skin infections, difficulty swallowing
Groaning, moaning, or grunting
Increased sleeping
Lack of bladder and bowel control
In end-stage AD, patients may be in bed much or all of the time. Death is often the result of other illnesses, frequently aspiration pneumonia.
Diagnosis: Means of diagnosing AD include the following:
Clinical examination: The clinical diagnosis of AD is usually made during the mild stage of the disease, using the above-listed signs
Lumbar puncture: levels of tau and phosphorylated tau in the cerebrospinal fluid are often elevated in AD, whereas amyloid levels are usually low; at present, however, routine measurement of CSF tau and amyloid is not recommended except in research settings
Imaging studies: Moreover, volumetric studies of the hippocampus and 2-[18F]fluoro-2-Deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) with or without amyloid imaging have been employed for early detection and differentiating dementia etiologies.
All drugs approved by the FDA for the treatment of AD are symptomatic therapies that modulate neurotransmitters, either acetylcholine or glutamate. The standard medical treatment for AD includes cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) and a partial N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist. They do not treat the underlying cause of AD nor halt the rate of decline.
The following classes of psychotropic medications have been used to treat the secondary symptoms of AD, such as depression, agitation, aggression, hallucinations, delusions, and sleep disorders:
Antidepressants
Anxiolytics
Antiparkinsonian agents
Beta-blockers
Antiepileptic drugs
Neuroleptics
Prevention:
Physical activity
Exercise
Cardiorespiratory fitness
Diet: Mediterranean diet
Смотрите видео How Alzheimer's Disease Works Animation -Causes Stages Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Prevention Video онлайн без регистрации, длительностью часов минут секунд в хорошем качестве. Это видео добавил пользователь Science Art 17 Ноябрь 2018, не забудьте поделиться им ссылкой с друзьями и знакомыми, на нашем сайте его посмотрели 1,577 раз и оно понравилось 13 людям.