Alzheimer's disease is a global impairment of intellect and memory associated with organic brain disease.
Features of probable Alzheimer's disease:
(1) non-vascular dementia
(1a) gradual onset in later life
(1b) no history of cerebrovascular disease or chronic hypertension
(1c) no focal neurological signs
(2) no history of
(2a) myocardial infarction
(2b) chronic hypertensive cardiovascular disease
(2c) alcoholism
(2d) major chronic or recurring psychiatric illness
(2e) Parkinson's disease
(2f) Huntington's chorea
(2g) Pick's disease
(2h) other neurologic disorders selectively affecting certain brain regions
(2i) chronic renal, hepatic, pulmonary or endocrine disease
(2j) syphilis or other infectious disease affecting the central nervous system
(2k) brain injury from trauma, hypoxia or neurotoxins
(3) not requiring treatment for:
(3a) diabetes mellitus
(3b) other major endocrine disease
(3c) hypertension
(4) no evidence of cerebrovascular or focal intracranial disease on EEG and/or CT scan
where:
• A reference age of time of onset was not given. I will use > 40 years in the implementation.
Limitations:
• Alzheimer's disease can develop in patients with a secondary cause of dementia, but the diagnosis cannot be made on purely clinical grounds. Diagnosis in this group requires additional studies such as neuropathology.
