Study head size affects Alzheimer's

Head size affects Alzheimer's. Relation between cranial circumference and Alzheimer's by MIRAGE study.

(14.07.2010) A study at the Klinikum rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich has established a link between head circumference and memory performance in Alzheimer's patients.

The researchers around the psychiatrist and senior physician of the Munich Clinic for Psychiatry, Dr. med. Robert Perneczky, took the head circumference measures of 270 Alzheimer's sufferers and related them to results from clinical dementia tests. They now published in the trade magazine „Neurology“ the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) under the title „Head circumference, atrophy, and cognition“ Recognizing that Alzheimer's patients with the largest head circumference performed best in memory and memory tests.

The team around Dr. Perneczky, by analogy, supports the theory that the larger head circumference offers more room for reserves of brain power, despite the fact that the same amount of brain cells have died down in all those affected. Furthermore, the head circumference is not determined, but can be influenced by influences in childhood. By about the age of six, more than 90 percent of brain volume growth has been completed. So the way of pregnancy and early childhood over the head volume could affect the later Alzheimer's disease. For example, improved quality of life during these periods could have a beneficial effect on prevention. But conversely, the question arises as to whether the living conditions for toddlers have deteriorated so much that there is an increase in Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, about 700,000 people in Germany suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Every year there are about 120,000 new cases. Alzheimer's disease, in which sufferers suffer from increasing functional limitations of the memory and the orientation areas of the brain, was first published in 1901 by the psychiatrist and neuropathologist dr. Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915), after whom she is also named. (Tf)

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Picture: Frank Radel