Alzheimer's Disease Case Study

but detailed classification of stages helped doctors properly diagnose thousands of cases over the following years. In modern times these classifications are still used, on the other hand; the more definite and more common for diagnosis is to utilize Positron Emission Tomography (PET). PET imaging works through the use of a tracer that emits pairs of gamma rays which can then be transformed into a three-dimensional image of the scanned region by the machine. In this case doctors will inject F-labeled compounds into the subject; these F-labeled compounds would then bind to abnormal amyloid deposition in the brain (Amyloid PET Imaging: Current Status). It would later be transformed into a clear image of the brain which doctors would then be able …show more content…
Suddenly a disease went from being debated upon even existing to one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States of America. This is shown in the following quote, from the journal Alzheimer’s Disease as a Cause of Death in the United States, “In 1976 when Katzman was writing about Alzheimer 's disease, mortality data were classified according to ICDA-8.11 Alzheimer 's disease was not classified separately but was included in the specific cate- gory of "Presenile dementia" (ICDA-8 290.1) and broader category "Senile and presenile dementia (ICDA-8 290), for which relatively few deaths were reported. Instead of using the reported number of deaths for the broader category, which ignores the distinction by age of onset, Katzman estimated the number of deaths of people dying "with senile dementia" using estimates of the prevalence and mortality risk of Alzheimer 's disease.23 This estimated number of deaths placed Alzheimer 's disease around the fifth leading cause of death at the …show more content…
Katzman 's method seems to assume that in all of the estimated 60,000 to 90,000 deaths, Alzheimer 's disease would be reported as the underlying cause of death on the death certificate. However, we suspect that even if Alzheimer 's dis- ease had been reported, in a substantial percent of cases it was likely to have been reported as contributing rather than causing death. The 60,000 to 90,000 estimate for Alzheimer 's disease as a multiple cause would have placed it around the eighth leading cause of death relative to the multiple cause counts for causes eligible for ranking in the 1970s”. The main reason for this change was due to the better diagnosis and understanding of the disease as previously stated. One may ask, what should be done now? This disease is one of the leading causes of death and yet there seems to be no cure for