Dementia Diagnosis Often Refined at Autopsy

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Dementia Diagnosis Often Refined at Autopsy

March 10, 2011 — Autopsy findings in patients diagnosed as having Alzheimer's

disease (AD) and other dementias often reveal insufficient pathology for the

original clinical diagnosis made during life and sometimes point to other or

even additional dementias operating together, new findings from the

Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS) suggest.

[...]

The investigators report that about half of the clinical diagnoses made during

life were " partially or totally nonconcordant with attribution based on

neuropathological findings. " Diagnosis of Lewy body dementia and vascular

dementia were most often accurate, whereas a diagnosis of Alzheimer's was

accurate only if it was considered " probable " or " pure, " they note.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738750