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A new study suggests that Alzheimer’s disease is possibly beginning to manifest itself in some patients as a disease that causes vision problems and is often overlooked. But increased awareness could lead to an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
The study published by the lancetfound that 94% of patients diagnosed with Posterior cortical atrophy, or PCA, a neurodegenerative disease that affects vision and primarily affects the occipital and parietal cortex, also suffered from Alzheimer’s. One of the researchers, Marianne Chapleau, shared the findings of the study on X.
“These data indicate that posterior cortical atrophy typically presents as a young-onset pure dementia syndrome that is highly specific to the underlying pathology of Alzheimer’s disease,” the study states.
Researchers PCA status is classified by decreased visual processing skills and deterioration of regions in the back of a patient’s brain.
“From a clinical point of view, posterior cortical atrophy is probably the second most common clinical presentation of Alzheimer’s disease after memory losshowever, it is underrecognized and patients can go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years,” said Dr. Gil Rabinovici, neurologist and lead author of this study. Medical news today.
Rabinovici, who is also director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said the disease can progress to the point of “functional blindness.”
The study concluded that the syndrome occurs more in women and that PCA begins to manifest around age 59 on average, but it normally occurs in people between 50 and 65 years old.
The study researchers say more awareness of PCA is needed for early detection and treatment.
Study: Risk factors for early-onset dementia, that is, dementia before age 65, identified
Strange vision problems: symptoms of posterior cortical atrophy
Symptoms may vary from one patient to another.
“The most common symptoms are consistent with damage to the posterior cortex of the brain, an area responsible for processing visual information,” writes the Alzheimer’s Association.
According to the Center on Aging and Memory at the University of San FranciscoThere is no test that can be used to diagnose PCA.
Both the Alzheimer’s Association and UCSF say the following are possible symptoms:
- Vision problems
- Struggle to recognize people, places or objects.
- Difficulty reading lines of text.
- Can’t judge distances correctly
- Has difficulty differentiating between moving and stationary objects.
- Inability to know if there is more than one object.
- Increased sensitivity to light or shiny things.
- Difficulty seeing in low light.
- I can’t identify left from right
- Anxiety
- Confusion
- Behavior changes
The Alzheimer’s Association also states that there are no established diagnostic criteria for PCA and that it is often not recognized in patients. Some studies claim that about 5% of Alzheimer’s patients have PDA, but that percentage may be as high as 15% because the condition is often overlooked.
According to the association, researchers have already begun work on creating a standard definition and diagnostic criteria.
What is Alzheimer’s?
Alzheimer’s disease accounts for about 60% to 80% of all dementia cases, making it the most common cause of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
It states that the disease is caused by microscopic changes in the brain that prevent it from functioning as it normally would and eventually kill brain cells. Changes begin to occur long before the patient begins to experience memory loss.
“Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s disease prevents some parts of the cellular factory from working well,” the association states. “They’re not sure where the problem starts. But just like in a real factory, jams and breakdowns in one system cause problems in other areas.”
