Expensive Alzheimer's tests are hardly enough for diagnosis

Harbingers of Alzheimer's? An expensive MRI scan is not enough to diagnose "shabby money making"

Especially older people quickly become afraid of Alzheimer's when they find out or are told that they often forget something. If they then turn to a doctor, they are often offered an MRI scan. Health experts point out that this method is not sufficient for early diagnosis.

Controversial Alzheimer's Early Tests
If it happens more often that you forget a name or misplaced the key, especially older people quickly worry about whether they may be denigrated. Therefore, if you go to a doctor, you will often be offered a special screening test. Whether such an Alzheimer's early test works, is among health experts but controversial. However, vendors such as Rudi Assauer, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan list such tests intensively and point out that it could hit anyone, "even the strongest and most successful". One could "comfortably" undergo a non-invasive brain examination in order to experience the own disease risk at an early stage. In some private practices, even symptom-free patients are often tested. As experts on the occasion of the World Alzheimer's Day: "Dementia - forget me" on 21 September stress that the procedures are classified as very critical.

Expert speaks of "shabby money making"
Isabella Heuser, the director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Berlin's Charité, said: "Patients could have had it cheaper - and more serious." She talks about "dubious products" from the vendors. Heuser, who is also on the board of the German brain league, says that it is "shabby money making". She speaks of methods that are usually based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): With such devices, a picture of the brain is made. For example, structural disorders in the brain tissue or an altered size of certain brain areas can be detected. Many a promotional text promises that even the smallest changes in the brain structure can be detected in high-resolution 3D images of the brain.

Over 1000 euros for a one-time test
Research by "Spiegel online" revealed: "For the one-time test, the practices collect several hundred, some more than a thousand euros. It is sometimes recommended to carry out the analysis again after a few years. "As the dpa reports, the managing director of a company that uses the MRI scans for the risk analysis with a computer program on behalf of the practices, has objected to criticism:" Spiegel online "quoted The experts: "It is not true that we scare people." As Heuser explains, examine physicians in brain volume studies based on brain normative data according to age and sex, whether statistically an increased risk of disease exists. Alzheimer can not be recognized so early.

Heuser warns of the possible harm that the result could cause in patients with a damaged psyche: "The people, who then may have a somewhat narrower hippocampus, you plunge into a life crisis. He may only have a depression. "There are such cases" quite often ".

Health insurance pays necessary examinations
The physician Volker Edelmann of the Vivantes-Kliniken Berlin explains: "Imaging procedures are important, but they do not say everything." According to the experts, a whole series of tests are carried out at so-called memory consultation sessions with specialists. Physicians talk to relatives, check previous findings and previous illnesses, do neurological examinations and test, among other things, how well you can remember something. If a patient is still relatively young, the MRI images of the brain and an examination of the nerve water can provide additional information. "The decision as to whether or not there is a dementia illness comes from the sum of these tests," says Edelmann. As a rule, the health insurance company pays the necessary examinations. The German Alzheimer's Society is skeptical of paid tests before the onset of symptoms, it says at the request of the news agency.

Number of dementia patients could triple
The market is expected to continue to grow in the future. Only recently did the World Alzheimer Report show that every 3.2 seconds another diagnosis of dementia is made. There are approximately 47 million dementia patients worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of sicknesses will triple by 2050. In Germany, there are about 1.5 million people with dementia, most have Alzheimer's. However, there have recently been studies in which an epidemic-like spread of Alzheimer's is questioned.

Lead the best possible healthy life
Some tests promise not only certainty, but also a medical advantage. Experts therefore also see an ethical problem: "Since preventive medicines are still lacking, such a test can create more uncertainty in unfavorable results than it uses," says Edelmann. The result must be carefully discussed with those affected and their relatives. Patients could protect themselves - if at all - only by, for example, having a healthy life as possible. The exact cause of the disease are not yet known. However, a number of factors have been identified that play a role in the development and development of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to high age and genetic predisposition, these include diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 2, metabolic syndrome, oxidative stress or inflammation. According to Heuser, the tests have nothing to do with precaution. But still patients come back to her, who have already undergone the procedure. They have hardly any choice but to be thoroughly tested. (Ad)