The Symptoms and Progression of Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's develops gradually, with mental changes becoming observable
between the ages of 40 and 60 years of age (although cases of earlier onset
exist). The duration of the disease is typically between two and eight years
(Kaufman). The common symptoms that arise during this time include(taken
from Kaufman):
Early Symptoms
- memory defects
- mood changes
- apathy
- agitation
- confusion leading eventually to profound dementia
Late Stage Symptoms
- speech disorders
- loss of motor control (apraxia)
- epileptic type seizures
- Parkinson's type halting gait
- facial or extremity paralysis
- stroke
Patients of Alzheimers progressively weaken as their symptoms grow in
number and virulence and eventually succomb to the disease. Death often
comes in the form of pneumonia know as aspiration pneumonia. In such a case,
the patient normally inhales some food or some other substance and gets
this lodged within their lungs. The lodged substance then provides a suitable
breeding ground which then promotes infection and the onset of pneumonia
(Berkow).
The following images compare a normal brain to that of an Alzheimer patient's
brain. Note ventricular dilation , destruction of gray matter and hippocampus
by plaques and tangles and the shrinking away of the brain from the skull
(image scanned from Glenner Article):
The following images take the above diagram and show the actual images
one would see upon examining a healthy brain and an Alzheimer's patient's
brain.
First the Normal Brain:
Alzheimer's brain
An Alzheimer's brain, in comparison, can be seen in this image:
As you can see, the Alzheimer brain has notable spreading of the sulci
and overall shrinkage, with the occipital region being spared for the most
part.
These images were taken from the following web site: http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/CNSHTML/CNS013.html".
Our thanks go out to them.