Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

A decade of pre-diagnostic assessment in a case of familial Alzheimer's disease: tracking progression from asymptomatic to MCI and dementia.

Godbolt AK, Cipolotti L, Anderson VM, Archer H, Janssen JC, Price S, Rossor MN, Fox NC

Dementia Research Group, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK.

Detailed study of the very earliest phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is seldom possible, especially those changes preceding the development of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which may occur years before diagnosis. Knowledge of imaging and neuropsychological features of these early stages would add insight into this poorly understood phase of the disease. We present data from a subject who entered a longitudinal study of individuals at risk of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD), as a healthy volunteer with no memory complaints, undergoing 12 assessments between 1992 and 2003. Longitudinal MRI, neuropsychological and clinical data are presented over the decade preceding this man's diagnosis, through the asymptomatic and prodromal preludes to his presentation with MCI and on to eventual conversion to AD.

Published 4 April 2005 in Neurocase, 11(1): 56-64.
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