NEW YORK: People who are old and who complain about loss of memory may actually be exhibiting the early signs of dementia, according to a study carried out at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Dr Andrew Saykin and his associates at the university used special MRI scans to study various brain regions in 40 subjects who had complained of memory loss without dementia, 40 subjects with early dementia and 40 healthy comparison subjects. They found that certain brain regions of patients in the first group were similar to those in the second group. However, in other brain regions, the people in the first group appeared to be no different from those in the third group.
The MRI scans indicated that those in the first group had brains that appeared less dense, which is an indication of mild cognitive impairment.
The changes were located in some of the same parts of the brain that are usually affected by Alzheimer's disease. The more a person complained of memory loss, the more his or her brain had changed.
While normal aging, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease are associated with the loss of gray matter in the brain, this is the first time a quantitative study on the severity of cognitive complaints in older adults has been undertaken and an effort made to directly assess the relationship to gray matter loss.
Writing in the journal Neurology, the team says subjective complaints of memory loss may signify a very early stage of the dementing process for some individuals. The researchers suggest that older adults who report memory loss require evaluation and close monitoring over time.
Saykin and his colleagues plan to continue the study in order to better understand the significance of their initial finding.
