ABSTRACT
With the increasing prevalence of dementia in the elderly and the recognition that
the syndrome itself is a heterogeneous disorder, there is a pressing need to
identify not only effective treatments, but also diagnostic aids that will selectively
and specifically define the different forms of dementia. Population-based studies
backed by neuropathological assessment are few; however, they show that
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), while still the major form of dementia, accounts for
about 60% of cases, with vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontal
lobe syndromes, and mixed pathology disorders also contributing to the overall
problem (1). Combining diagnostics and therapeutics will provide the most
significant benefits for patients, but with different syndromes making up the total
picture, it is vital to ensure that the diagnosis is correct. A major problem with
dementia diagnosis currently is the fact that gold standard diagnosis can only
come postmortem (see Chapter 11). Clinical diagnosis, while highly accurate in
many tertiary referral centers, comes only after extensive examination over a
period of months, during which time specific treatments need to be applied. The
ability to provide a rapid and accurate diagnosis could therefore lead to
significant improvements in dementia treatment.
