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alzheimer disease		A degenerative disease of the brain characterized by the insidious onset of dementia. Impairment of memory, judgment, attention span, and problem solving skills are followed by severe apraxia and a global loss of cognitive abilities. The condition primarily occurs after age 60, and is marked pathologically by severe cortical atrophy and the triad of senile plaques; neurofibrillary tangles; and neuropil threads. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp1049-57) [ Articles | Books | Images | Discussion groups ]
Additional comments : Alzheimer's disease is a slowly progressive disease,which may last anywhere between 2 and 20 years. There is no cure for disease nor any specific treatment.This neurological disorder causes a gradual deterioration of the brain resulting in the victim's failure to communicate, ambulate and control bodily functions. United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Aging - 1986 Alzheimer's disease is an age-related, not an age-dependent disease.The degree of brain destruction at stages III-IV frequently leads to the appearance of initial clinical symptoms. The stages V-VI representing fully developed Alzheimer's disease are increasingly prevalent with increasing age. The arithmetic means of the stages of both the amyloid-depositing and the neurofibrillary pathology increase with age. Age is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Braak H, Braak E. Neurobiol Aging. 1997 Jul-Aug;18(4):351-7. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease is substantial and is approximately 14 times higher among persons older than 85 years compared with those between 65 and 69 years of age. Hebert LE, Scherr PA, Beckett LA, Albert MS, Pilgrim DM, Chown MJ, Funkenstein HH, Evans DA. JAMA. 1995 May 3;273(17):1354-9. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of progressive intellectual failure in aged humans. The filamentous brain lesions which define the disease occur within neurons (neurofibrillary tangles), in extracellular cerebral deposits (amyloid plaques) and in meningocerebral blood vessels (amyloid angiopathy).They are found in lesser numbers in the brains of virtually all old humans. Joachim CL, Mori H, Selkoe DJ. Nature. 1989 Sep 21;341(6239):226-30. Alzheimer's disease is a dementing disorder of unknown cause in which there is degeneration of neuronal subpopulations in the central nervous system. DR Hinton, AA Sadun, JC Blanks, CA Miller - N Engl J Med, 1986 Free Full Text References

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