The duration of the Alzheimer’s disease may be 8 to 12 years. In the first 2 to 3 years, symptoms are subtle and the disease may go unnoticed. The most important risk factor is age, since the brain, over the years, is presenting structural and functional changes. Y-neurons-nerve cells are very sensitive to the effects of aging, then, over time, modifying the quantity and form. In fact, after 50 years of age, you lose about 5 percent of neurons for 10 years.
Specialists believe that there are genetic factors that increase the risk of this disease which affects about 4 million people in the United States amount is estimated, will amount to 14 million within 40 years.
Currently, the certainty of the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is about 85 percent, and only confirmed by postmortem analysis of the patient’s brain.
The disease was first described in 1906 by German physician Alois Alzheimer, a psychiatry congress held in the city of Tübingen. Alzheimer’s presentation was the description of a 51-year-old named Auguste D. This patient had a disorder characterized by reduced cognitive ability, hallucinations and loss of psychosocial integration capacity. Auguste died in 1906 and, at the time, approached the study of Alzheimer’s brain lesions of the patient.
Microscopic examination of the brain of patients showing loss of neurons and the presence of certain alterations, and deposition of a protein called amyloid, is what is called senile plaques. Another change is that which is called neurofibrillary tangles, a lesion that appears as a ball composed of small fibrils intertwined. The senile plaques are spherical structures that are among the cells. Also decrease levels of acetylcholine, a chemical that contributes to the transmission of messages between neurons.
Alzheimer’s disease is associated frequently with depression. The specialist treating the patient must decide which of these disorders is the primary. Depression can be accompanied by deterioration of cognitive ability, and also dementia in its early stages, may be accompanied by depression.
Tags: Alzheimer's disease, analysis of the patient's brain, diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, duration of the Alzheimer’s disease
