Alzheimer’s Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Alzheimers Disease INTRODUCTION Alzheimers disease is a progressive degenerative unhinge of insidious onset, characterized by memory loss, confusion, and a variety of cognitive disabilities. It is the major cause of insanity in the elderly and is characterized by the presence of neuropathologic lesions including neurofibrillary tangles in the neuronal perikarya and in pyramidal neurons of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and neocortex, nucleus basalis of Meynert, and periaqueductal gray. Neuritic (senile) plaques often with a central or core deposition of amyloid within the plaque and in some cases with amyloid infiltration of blood vessel walls (amyloid angiopathy) and the adjacent perivascular neuropil loss of neurons, most often in the hippocampus, neocortex, locus coeruleus, and nucleus basalis and stochasticity of acetylcholine transmitter activity marked by lowered levels of acetylcholine and choline acetyltransferase (4). ETIOLOGY Alzheimers disease may strike as early a s age 40, besides is most common after the age of 60. As the average life expectancy continues to increase so too does the incidence of AD. In its early stages it is laborious to distinguish from normal aging. However, whether AD is a specific qualitative disorder such as an infectious process, endogenous or exogenous toxic disorder or biochemical deficiency, or whether it is a quantitative disorder, in which an acceleration of the normal aging processes occur and dementia appears as neural reserves are exhausted, remains to be seen. New techniques of molecular genetics provide a promising new approach for understanding AD in view of the demo that there is a familiar factor present in the disease (4). In several studies, over one thi... ...scular disease, Parkinsons disease, hydrocephalus, amyotrophic lateral and multiple sclerosis, and dementias resulting from tumors and brain injuries. In light of all this, with an aging population, it is clear to see the need for further stu dy in order to gain a better understanding of the cause and parameters of AD. Works Cited1) Guela and M. Mesulam (1989). Cortical Cholinergic Fibers in age and Alzheimers Disease A Morphometric Study. Neuroscience, Vol.33, No.3 pp. 469-481. 2.)Guela, C., Tokuno, H., Hersh, L., and Mesulam, M., (1990). Human Striatal Cholinergic Neurons In Development, Aging and Alzheimers Disease. Brain Research, 508 pp.310-312. 3.) Nappi, G., Sinforiani, E., Martigonoi, E., Petraglia, F., Rossi, F., Genazzani, A. R. (1988). Aging Brain and Dementias Changes in Central Opioids. European Neurology. 28 pp.217-220.