Youngest Alzheimer’s patient diagnosed in China

A Chinese teenager is the youngest person to be diagnosed with possible Alzheimer’s disease. Study published Dec. 31 by the doctor who diagnosed him.

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease that affects thinking, memory and behavior. The vast majority of Alzheimer’s patients are over the age of 65, and this case is particularly exceptional.

Research published in Alzheimer’s Disease Journal, We outline how an unnamed 19-year-old boy began showing signs of amnesia two years before being referred to the Neurological Disorders Innovation Center and Department of the Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing.

Two years ago he started having trouble concentrating on his high school studies and a year ago he started suffering from short-term memory problems.

“For example, he could not remember events from just one day ago or the location of his belongings,” the authors write. “He had difficulty reading and reacting.”

Gradually, the teen’s memory deteriorated. The authors wrote that he often lost his belongings, could not remember whether he had eaten, and had trouble describing what he had just read.

As a result of his deteriorating health, he had to drop out of high school. Prior to his onset of symptoms, he was considered an above-average student.

a series of tests

Once the teen was referred to Genbu Hospital, his case doctor dived into his medical and family history and ran a battery of tests looking for clues about his condition.

They found that his childhood development was normal, with no history of dementia, cognitive decline, or psychiatric illness in any of his parents, grandparents, or next of kin.

He had no history of illness related to head trauma, psychiatric disturbances, or memory loss, and his physicians were not aware of other common cognitive impairments in young people, such as inflammation, infection, poisoning, metabolic disorders, trauma, and “congenital anomalies.” We’ve ruled out the cause.”

The teenage girl underwent a range of neuropsychological tests, including mental status, memory, dementia, anxiety, and depression, as well as MRI and CT scans, blood and urine, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and tau tangles. I also received a tau tracer to look for .

Tau is a protein that supports neurons or nerve cells in the brain. Aberrant accumulation of tau, especially in protein tangles, is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

His cerebrospinal fluid showed abnormal accumulations of tau, and his MRI showed atrophy in his hippocampus – loss of nerve cells and the connections that help them communicate with the tissues of the brain.

He also scored below average on the World Health Organization and the University of California, Los Angeles Auditory Language Learning Test, suggesting that he suffered from significant memory impairment.

Doctors sequenced the genes of the teenager and his family members looking for mutations linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but found none.

rare diagnosis

Even without these mutations, they made the diagnosis.

“This is the youngest case reported to possibly meet the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease without the presence of a genetic mutation,” they wrote.

Previously, they explained, the youngest patient diagnosed with the disease was 21 years old.

Young-onset Alzheimer’s disease affects people under the age of 65, rarely accounting for 2-8% of the population, or 28,000. Known cases in Canada, According to the Alzheimer’s Association of Canada.

The disease can arise sporadically through a combination of genetics, aging, and environment, or through pathological mutations in genes.

Younger patients are more likely to carry these gene mutations, as are the youngest patients previously diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As such, experts were baffled by her teenage diagnosis and lack of mutations. They wrote that his case changed “our understanding of the typical age of onset[of Alzheimer’s disease].”

The authors did not disclose what treatment or support the young patient will receive, but said they plan to follow up on a long-term basis to better understand their condition.