New Alzheimer’s Diagnostic Criteria Are Finalized

The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association have revised versions of an initial set of guidelines for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. The final guidelines update the previous set developed 27 years ago and are intended for clinical purposes and for recruiting trial participants, rather than for diagnosing patients in routine practice. The new criteria incorporate results from brain imaging and spinal taps to determine if patients have dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease; mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease; and an entirely new entity called preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The goal is to better ensure that patients really haveAlzheimer’s disease, as opposed to vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia or other conditions with similar symptoms.