Nowadays, there is great interest in the search for more complex tests than those currently used in clinical practice that allow cognitive alterations to be detected in increasingly earlier phases of Alzheimer’s disease.
Blog | Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's
Everyone knows that Alzheimer's disease represents one of the main current health problems. Just looking at the data, we can already predict that Alzheimer's disease will be the new epidemic of the 21st century: it is estimated that in 2050 in Spain more than one million people will have dementia, most of them Alzheimer's type.
Organizations such as the WHO have already warned of its social and health impact and encourage governments to take measures to reduce it by detecting Alzheimer's disease as soon as possible and, in addition, finding a curative treatment.
An encouraging piece of news is that, according to international experts, we will have Alzheimer's-modifying therapies in the near future. Therefore, the main challenge for the professionals who work to make Alzheimer's history is its early detection in order to start prevention and treatment measures before there is irreparable brain damage.
What is Alzheimer's disease?
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and irreversible disease that goes from normal to dementia, passing through the following stages:
- Preclinical phase or subjective cognitive impairment (SCI): only brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease are found through laboratory tests, that is, lumbar puncture, brain MRI, among others, but the neuropsychological evaluation still does not show alteration of memory or other cognitive function.
- Intermediate phase or mild cognitive impairment (MCI): in the neuropsychological evaluation, cognitive alterations are already found that are not important enough to interfere with daily life.
- Dementia: cognitive alterations already affect daily life, turning those who suffer from it into a dependent person.
The importance of neuropsychological evaluation
The neuropsychological evaluation plays an important role in the diagnosis of the phases of Alzheimer's. It is very important to be able to diagnose people with mild cognitive impairment as soon as possible, since they have an annual risk of conversion to dementia of 18%, with Alzheimer's being the most common.
In addition, the Diagnostic Unit of Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona showed that people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment have an 8.5 times greater risk of converting to dementia than those with non-amnestic cognitive impairment, so it is important to assess the memory to know in which risk group the person is. The type of impairment was classified into amnestic and non-amnesic by means of a complete neurological and neuropsychological examination, called the ACE Neuropsychological Battery, NBACE®, which makes it possible to determine which cognitive functions are altered and which are normal.
Thanks to new technologies, at Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona we are committed to innovation and managed to adapt our diagnostic procedure to telemedicine, including the NBACE battery, to be able to administer it telematically, thus facilitating access to the entire population, including those with mobility or live further away from hospitals.
The challenge of expanding neuropsychological tests to better and faster detect cognitive impairment
Nowadays, there is great interest in the search for more complex tests than those currently used in clinical practice that allow cognitive alterations to be detected in increasingly earlier phases of Alzheimer's disease.
Technological advances combined with biomarker research have allowed us to find complex memory tests useful for early detection, such as our FACEmemory® test.
This test requires learning the name and profession of 12 faces; it is representative of a real situation and applicable to everyday life and is sensitive to the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Since the self-administered FACEmemory® under the supervision of an Ace psychologist proved to be a useful tool for the early detection of Alzheimer's, since May 2021 we offer the FACEmemory® online platform free of charge. In this way, all those people who want to assess their memory can take the test from home, facilitating accessibility to the entire population whose mother tongue is Spanish, Catalan or English from any country, including those who live in remote rural areas of hospital centres or that due to mobility problems they would not consult their doctor for their memory.
In this way, people interested in knowing the state of their cognition only need to have a computer or a tablet and 30 minutes of absolute tranquillity, without any type of distraction. This is an online cognitive screening to detect mild cognitive impairment and dementia in undiagnosed people who would not have consulted without this type of online tools.
The FACEmemory® is a neuropsychological test that makes it possible to optimize the use of the economic resources that public health allocates to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and, in addition, the person reduces their path to diagnosis, benefiting from personalized medicine.
Although at first glance it might seem that FACEmemory® tries to detect disease, its main objective is to promote good health and quality of life in the population, since when someone is concerned about their memory they are carrying out prevention and looking for ways to favour their memory.
Prevention is the key
Although we currently do not have a curative treatment for Alzheimer's disease, it has been scientifically proven that healthy habits can delay the onset of cognitive decline.
Among the factors that influence the development of dementia, some such as age or genetic predisposition cannot be modified, but environmental factors or healthy habits can. Thus, it is important to practice physical exercise on a regular basis, maintain a healthy and balanced diet, not smoke, reduce alcohol consumption, control blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, carry out activities that are of interest to you and stay socially active.
DRA. MONTSE ALEGRET
Responsable de Neuropsicología de la Unidad de Diagnóstico de Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona
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