Current Events > 19 y/o is youngest ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease

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https://twitter.com/calgaryherald/status/1626632223221743624

A memory clinic in China has diagnosed a 19-year-old with Alzheimers disease, making him the youngest person in the world to be identified with the condition.

Neurologists at Capital Medical Universitys Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing say the patients brain showed early signs of the neurodegenerative disease, including memory loss, hippocampal atrophy and shrinkage.

After ruling out other causes of cognitive decline, they diagnosed the teen with early onset Alzheimers, the most common form of dementia. The research challenges the established view of the disease and its association with aging. It also emphasizes the need for more study in younger people, the authors say.

Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimers disease may become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future, they said in a statement.

Alzheimers diagnosis climbed 200 per cent between 2013 and 2017 in people aged 30 to 64, with the average age of early onset diagnosis at 49 years old, according to the latest data from Blue Cross Blue Shield. While its prevalence increases with age, about five to six per cent of people diagnosed with the ailment develop characteristic symptoms before the age of 65, according to Mayo Clinic.

The teens memory decline started with an inability to focus in class about two years before the consultation with the clinic, the study says. As his cognitive ability deteriorated, he had trouble reading, remembering events from the day before and would misplace his belongings.

The adolescent was unable to finish homework, remember whether he had eaten or even react to things fast enough, and had to drop out of high school. The results of an auditory and learning test further confirmed a memory disorder, placing him far behind his peers in short- and long-term memory recall.

A sample of the young patients cerebrospinal fluid had a high concentration of p-tau181, while a PET scan showed mild hippocampal atrophy, the study says. Both indicators led the authors to diagnose him with probable Alzheimers disease.

Strangely, though, a whole genome sequence showed no inherited gene mutations for the condition, which younger patients typically have.

The patient also has no family with a history of the disease or any head trauma or disease that could explain his diminished cognitive ability. The perplexing and rare case was recently published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease.

That's tragic. :(

wow piss off universe

Jesus... way too fucking young for something like that.

Wow. Talk about dante must die mode.

SSJKirby posted...

wow piss off universe

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/3/7/AAYdjcAAEMlp.jpg

Holy shit

Kinda scary that this is possible

My uncle was diagnosed with early onset dementia almost 10 years ago now. He's been gone 7 years at this point. It sucks to watch someone wither away and die.

Jfc

Poor guy. I feel so bad for him.

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