[Recognizing Alzheimer's disease in daily practice]

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is of great practical importance. The process of differentiating a disease with symptoms of dementia caused by another pathology of the nervous system is based on a subjective assessment. The pathogenesis of AD emphasizes the importance of neuropil beta-amyloid deposition in the brain and the tau protein inside neurons, which is found 20 years before the onset of clinical symptoms of the disease. The number of people suffering from AD doubles every 20 years and in 2050 there will be 115.4 million of them worldwide. The level of education and constant intellectual activity may be a factor protecting against the occurrence of AD. The diagnosis of AD takes into account information obtained from interviews as well as from additional imaging and laboratory tests. The available criteria for AD diagnosis are constantly modified and changed, which makes their application in everyday practice difficult.