Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Not applicable, Education and training, Education, MR, CT, CNS, Neuro
Authors:
A. R. Pugliesi1, W. Kersjes2, J. Degenkolb3, D. O. Aoua1; 1Ludwigsburg/DE, 2Bietigheim-Bissingen/DE, 3Gilching/DE
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-15096
Background
Dementia includes brain diseases that cause a long-term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is severe enough to affect a person's daily functioning.
Symptoms include emotional problems, difficulties with language, memory, attention and a decrease in motivation.
The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease ( AD) ( 50% to 70% of cases); vascular dementia (25%), dementia with Lewy bodies (15%) and frontotemporal dementia.
Less common are: normal pressure hydrocephalus, Parkinson's disease dementia, Huntington Disease, CADASIL, metabolic endocrine disorders (hypo-/hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia,...); Infectious and inflammatory diseases of the CNS (meningitis, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease,…); Deficiency states (lack of vitamine, malnutrition); Toxic substances (alcohol, drugs,..); Expansive processes (hematomas, brain abscesses,..); Traumatic Brain Injury; etc.
Diagnosis is usually based on history of the illness and cognitive testing (like the mini mental test) with medical imaging and blood tests used to rule out other possible causes.