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Diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease – The Most Popular and Future Perspective Methods

Paweł Szymański, Katarzyna Pietrzak and Elżbieta Mikiciuk Olasik

Alzheimer disease (AD) is classified as a neurodegenerative age-related disease. Despite all efforts in research therapy, current pharmacotherapy is mainly based on symptomatic treatment. Unfortunately, brain damage caused by the pathophysiological mechanisms of Alzheimer disease is still irreversible. The first symptoms, observed as cognitive impairments, occur when the neurodegenerative process is in progress. This was one of the reasons why scientists found that early diagnosis could be a way to combat the disease, they concentrated on searching and improving methods of early detection of any brain lesions. Alzheimer disease is only one of the types of dementia and the first symptoms are similar to mild cognitive impairments which do not have to be developed to AD. These medical observations prove that there is a great need for accurate methods of diagnosis. These factors give the direction of present and future perspective methods of neuroimaging. This review is focused on current structural (MRI) and functional (PET) brain imagining as well as promising future ways of using biological markers.