Question: How is Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed?

Amy Birch answered on 11 Jun 2012:

Hi liverpooljosh, that’s a very interesting question!
A full diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is actually not possible until after a person has died. There are certain protein clumps that occur in Alzheimer’s called amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that have to be present in someone’s brain for them to be diagnosed, but at the moment it is not possible to look for these without taking a piece of someone’s brain!
There are some radioactive compounds that are being developed to stick to the amyloid plaques that can been seen in a scan called a PET scan so hopefully in the future this will help with diagnosis.
Usually, someone is given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease if they score badly in some memory tests, such as the Mini Mental State Exam. This tests lots of different types of memory and from this, doctors can usually judge whether the person is likely to have Alzheimer’s disease.