“We advocate, based on these findings, that the criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease should include MRI scans,” said Dr. Ranjan Duara, who was the lead author of a study by Florida’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “By incorporating MRIs into the assessment of patients with memory problems, early diagnosis can be standardized and done far more accurately.”

Duara works at Miami’s Wien Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders at Mount Sinai Medical Center where he is medical director.

As the most common cause of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is often indicated by memory loss, disorientation, and deterioration of reading and speaking skills. Because other syndromes or disease’s share these symptoms, often the only way, previously, to confirm Alzheimer’s disease in a patient was by autopsy, which would show the affected brain area.

Previously doctors only used a brain scan to rule out other possible causes of the Alzheimer’s symptoms, such as a stroke.

Researchers studied 260 people in the Miami and Tampa, Florida, areas who were suffering some memory loss. The MRI showed atrophy in the brain regions commonly associated with Alzheimer’s and helped researchers accurately diagnose that the memory loss was from the disease and not from other sources.

Additionally, the study showed that MRIs can spot shrinkage in the brain of people not yet showing signs of Alzheimer’s. These patients began showing this signs as little as two years later, suggesting the scans can be an early predictor of the disease.

The study was funded in part by a National Institute on Aging grant.

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“It is common for a person with dementia to wander and become lost, many repeatedly,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association. “In fact, over 60 percent of those with dementia will wander at some point.”

While the programs vary from state to state, all share the general concept of the Amber Alert that is used to find missing children. When a patient suffering from dementia wanders off, authorities are notified and the Silver Alert goes into effect.
According to the National Association of State Units on Aging and MSNBC, among states participating in the Silver Alert program now are:

• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Virginia

As an example of how the plan works, when a Florida man went missing recently, the Silver Alert placed an automated phone call to everyone in multi-square-mile area around his home, and he was quickly found. The man was trying to get to Alabama, and trying to go such an improbable distance is a common problem.

“They don’t understand how far they are from home,” Christa Ksiezopolski of the Alzheimer and Parkinson Association of Indian River County, Florida, told The New York Times.

But implementing the program has not been without controversy. New York state officials determined not to set up a Silver Alert, fearing it would dilute the impact of the Amber Alert program, the NASUA said in a May 2008 survey of states.

That survey gives details on seven state programs. Other states fear privacy concerns with senior citizens, who, unlike missing children, have the righs of an adult.

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