Currently, doctors cannot diagnose Alzheimer's disease with 100% certainty until a brain autopsy after the person's death reveals the disease's markers: abnormal clumps and irregular knots of brain cells.
Alzheimers Diagnosis
This uncertainty makes a difficult situation all the more distressing. The affected individual and loved ones always wonder, Is it really Alzheimer's? A great deal rides on the answer to this question, and the possibility of a misdiagnosis can raise already-high anxiety levels even higher.
Ideally, there would be a quick, simple, reliable, inexpensive, noninvasive test that would diagnose Alzheimer's disease very early, before the affected individual suffered significant cognitive decline. Early definitive diagnosis would allow the person and his or her loved ones the time to prepare for and adjust to the cognitive changes the disease causes.
No such test currently exists, and today, diagnosis of Alzheimer's rests largely on the judgment of physicians experienced in dealing with dementing illnesses. But that judgment has become quite sophisticated. Experts estimate current diagnostic accuracy at around 90%.
In addition, a great deal of research is now focused on developing a practical, reliable, early diagnostic test for Alzheimer's. Several appear promising.