Dementia Does the Alzheimer's Early Test work?

Are expensive early screening examinations medically superfluous? 

Alzheimer's represents the most common form of dementia, which leads to a constant loss of mental capacity in those affected. Since the disease is not curable so far, more and more practices offer special screening tests, in which the risk for Alzheimer's should be calculated. But the expensive method is much criticized, as it apparently "medical much less useful than the patient is promised".

Dementia leads to loss of cognitive ability and personality change
Every person suffers from a normal forgetfulness with advancing age, which affects one more and the other less. In contrast, dementia (Latin: "waning mind") is a serious aging disease characterized by a gradual loss of mental capacity. The consequences include a diminishing memory, language and orientation disorders as well as a reduction of the ability to learn and to judge, whereby an independent life becomes more and more impossible.

Brain shrinks faster than healthy peers
The so-called "Alzheimer's disease" (Alzheimer's disease) represents the most common form of which, according to information from the Federal Ministry of Health, about 2/3 of the 1.5 million people with dementia are affected. This neurodegenerative disease is caused by the dying of brain cells, which gradually shrinks the brain by up to 20 percent. In addition, Alzheimer's patients find deposits of certain proteins (beta-amyloid plaques) between the nerve cells, which, from the expert's point of view, play a central role in the development and progression of the disease.

Special software calculates disease risk
Alzheimer's is not curable so far. Accordingly, more and more practices and health institutes are relying on a determination of the risk of Alzheimer's disease, on the grounds that they can initiate the necessary treatment steps as early as possible. The examination is carried out by means of magnetic resonance tomography (MRI), by means of which the size of the brain can be determined. Special software then analyzes the data and finally calculates the risk of getting Alzheimer's within the next five years.

Hundreds of expensive tests are pointless in the eyes of many experts
But the calculation of Alzheimer's risk, which costs several hundred euros, is viewed critically by many experts. Because here only becomes recognizable, if a certain area in the brain (hippocampus) shrinks. However, whether this means an actual illness can not be clearly demonstrated by the method. According to Richard Dodel from the German Society for Neurology, Spiegel Online has no medical benefits. In addition, Alzheimer's dementia can generally be treated only to a very limited extent. "And that a particularly early treatment before the onset of the first symptoms would be useful, the data does not give," the expert further. (No)