Alzheimer's disease

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Alzheimer's disease

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Other symptoms that may occur with AD:

• Incontinence
• Swallowing problems

AD can often be diagnosed through a history and physical exam by a skilled doctor or nurse. A health care provider will take a history, do a physical exam (including a neurological exam), and perform a mental status examination.

Tests may be ordered to help determine whether other medical problems could be causing dementia or making it worse. These conditions include:

• Thyroid disease
• Vitamin deficiency
• Brain tumor
• Stroke
• Intoxication from medication
• Chronic infection
• Anemia
• Severe depression

Computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain may be done to look for other causes of dementia, such as a brain tumor or stroke.

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• In the early stages of dementia, brain image scans may be normal. In later stages, an MRI may show a decrease in the size of different areas of the brain.
• While the scans do not confirm the diagnosis of AD, they do exclude other causes of dementia (such as stroke and tumor).

Review Date: 10/04/2010
Reviewed By: Daniel Kantor, MD, Medical Director of Neurologique, Ponte Vedra, FL and President of the Florida Society of Neurology (FSN). Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org).