title: Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.
abstract: This section reviews some of the more prominent alternate causes of dementia that need to be excluded when pursuing a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In practice, this exclusion cannot be done with 100% precision. Consequently, the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is approximately 85%. Brain biopsy, which is seldom performed in practice, is the only method of moving diagnostic accuracy to near 100%. There is yet no intervention that halts or reverses the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease, so the invasive brain biopsy is rarely justified to confirm a diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Center for Aging, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford 08084-1504, USA. dinsmore@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Dinsmore
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003071:Cognition; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans