Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer disease has been inconsistently associated with traumatic head injury, low educational achievement, depression, advanced parental age at the time of birth, smoking, and Down syndrome in a first-degree relative. In some observational studies, the use of estrogen-replacement therapy in postmenopausal women and the regular use of anti-inflammatory agents..

The pathophysiology and etiology of Alzheimer disease (Alzheimer's disease) are unknown. Alzheimer disease has been inconsistently associated with traumatic head injury, low educational achievement, depression, advanced parental age at the time of birth, smoking, and Down syndrome in a first-degree relative. In some observational studies, the use of estrogen-replacement therapy in postmenopausal women and the regular use of anti-inflammatory agents in both men and women have been associated with lowered risks of Alzheimer disease.

These three scans are coronal views, one of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (Pick’s type), one of Alzheimer’s disease and a normal brain for comparison. Imagine you are looking at a brain face on, the picture taken from ear to ear.

The Pick’s scan shows marked atrophy (shrinkage) of the left temporal lobe. Asymmetric atrophy is characteristic of frontotemporal lobar degeneration when there is impairment of speech.

 The second scan shows global atrophy typically seen in Alzheimer’s disease. There is an even loss of tissue throughout the brain