Fast Five Quiz: Alzheimer's Disease Management

Jasvinder P. Chawla, MD, MBA; Shaheen E. Lakhan, MD, PhD, MS, MEd

Disclosures

August 22, 2023

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic, neurodegenerative disorder of the aging population that results in progressive cognitive and behavioral dysfunction. Affecting approximately 50 million adults worldwide, Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. The rate of Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and the costs to healthcare worldwide will increase.

Although the cause of Alzheimer's disease is unknown, environmental and genetic risk factors likely converge, and, over years, leads to the pathophysiologic changes associated with the disease. However, recent scientific research indicates that the biological signs of Alzheimer's disease are present 10-20 years before symptom onset.

One encouraging recent study found that plasma biomarkers (Aβ42/Aβ40, P-tau217, and NfL) improve the accuracy of predicting Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. Further research is needed to confirm the optimal panel of biomarkers, although evidence suggests that all three core biomarkers are useful, as they all add independent information predicting cognitive change. The accurate discrimination of Alzheimer's disease from other neurodegenerative diseases could potentially be achieved via a simple blood test to measure plasma tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (P-tau217). Further studies are needed to validate these findings.

Do you know current management recommendations for Alzheimer's disease? Test your knowledge with this quick quiz.

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