Czech tests help to detect Alzheimer's disease in time
It's hard for them to remember your name, address or the fact that they are having a meeting with you in two days. Homework is more foreign to them every other day, they prefer to go for a walk without any reason and idea, where they are going.
Nowadays, people with Alzheimer's disease are on the rise, even though doctors are very interested in its treatment. However, members of the Czech pilot project on Alzheimer's dementia diagnosis and similar neurodegenerative disorders have set the goal to change this deterrent state. They wanted to figure out how to diagnose the disease quicker, and so speed up the treatment at an early stage. The results are surprising.
THE PROCEDURE
"The main idea is that a regular medical check-up for seniors will be extended by a brief memory test. In the event of its failure, the seniors will be examined in further detail to exclude other possible causes of memory impairment, such as depression or certain metabolic defects,"explained Hana Matějovská Kubešová, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Practical Medicine, FN Brno and Chairwoman of the Institute of Social and Health Strategies .
The research was created and also organized by the Institute of Social and Health Strategies in cooperation with the Brno City Council, the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University and the Institute of Health Information and Statistics. Four dozen general practitioners helped with realization too. First twenty practitioners from Brno joined the pilot project last January and the remaining twenty from Břeclav region joined in July 2017. They tested 875 seniors.
These test did not manage 94 of the, of which 33 were newly diagnosed with onset dementia. Twenty-nine respondents who did not pass the test revealed further depression testing and the rest of the memory disorder of another origin. The results were discussed on 24th March in Brno on the Neorodeg international conference of physicians. Experts also focused on forms of effective memory training and its therapeutic treating methods.
THE EXAMPLES OF THE TEST:
Even simple tests can tell a lot about a person's memnory breakdown. Such as example is continuous subtraction of number seven from the initial hundred, drawing a dial and numbers marked therein, or listing the words, which begin with the letter m. If the person has really big problems with these mentioned activities, it can signal Alzheimer's disease.
WHAT IS ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE?
Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that causes irreversible changes in the brain and the decline of so-called cognitive functions - thinking, memory, judgment. It is the most common cause of dementia. The illness is incurable, but doctors try to slow down its course. The disease causes deposition of beta amyloid protein in the cerebral cortex. Changes progressively affect the breakdown of nerve fibers and nerve cells. The exact cause of this process is unknown, but there are risk factors that are clearly associated with a greater incidence of the disease like age and inheritance. According to some scientists, dementia is also more common for people with obezity or high blood pressure.
How it looks like?
The first stage of this disease lasts for about four years, when the patients have memory problems, but they are still self-sufficient. Gradually, however, there is a growing risk of default in day-to-day operations. The next stage of illness is accompanied by an increasing incidence of unpredictable and irresponsible behavior. The final stage of the disease is a typical loss of ability to communicate with the others and also to perform basic self-care tasks. Although, this disease manifests itself differently for everyone.
Prevention
Doctors are recommending to maintain a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical and mental activity. Keeping your condition, blood pressure control, and cholesterol lowering may, by some risk, be reduced by 15 to 20 percent.
Occurrence
Alzheimer's disease occurs especially in people over 65 years old and over. Even though, there are cases where this disease affects young people as well. Often this is conditioned by genetic disposition.
If you want to know more about this topic, go on these websites below:
• https://www.gerontologie.cz/showdoc.do?docid=4
VOCABULARY
• neurodegenerative disorders = neurodegenerativní onemocnění (více na: https://wikisofia.cz/wiki/Neurodegenerativn%C3%AD_onemocn%C4%9Bn%C3%AD)
• regular medical check-up = pravidelná preventivní prohlídka
• memory impairment = poškození paměti
• general practitioners = praktičtí lékaři
• dementia = demence
• physician = lékař, doktor
• cognitive functions = kognitivní funkce (více na: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kognitivn%C3%AD_funkce)
• beta amyloid protein =beta amyloid bílkovina
• cerebral cortex = mozková kůra
• nerve fibers = nervová vlákna
• nerve cells = nervové buňky
SOURCES
HUŠKOVÁ, Veronika. Alzheimerova choroba. Novinky.cz [online]. BORGIS a.s., 2003 [cit. 2018-03-27]. Dostupné z: https://tema.novinky.cz/alzheimerova-choroba
HOMOLA, Miroslav. České testy pomáhají včas odhalit Alzheimerovu chorobu. Novinky.cz [online]. BORGIS a.s., 2003, pátek 23. března 2018, 18:53 [cit. 2018-03-27]. Dostupné z: https://www.novinky.cz/veda-skoly/466712-ceske-testy-pomahaji-vcas-odhalit-alzheimerovu-chorobu.html
Alzheimer - choroba wymagająca empatii i cierpliwości. In: Tylko Toruń [online]. Toruń, 3.10. 2017 [cit. 2018-03-27]. Dostupné z: https://www.tylkotorun.pl/alzheimer-choroba-wymagajaca-empatii-i-cierpliwosci/