19-year-old boy suffers from Alzheimer's disease! Always forgetful? 60-second self-test →

Recently, a paper written by Jia Jianping's team from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University published a case of a 19-year-old patient who was clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which sparked heated discussions among netizens and quickly became a hot topic on Weibo.

The youngest patient known so far!

19-year-old boy diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease

"This is the youngest known patient clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease." Recently, a paper written by Jia Jianping's team from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University was published in an internationally renowned Alzheimer's disease research journal, announcing a case of a 19-year-old patient who was clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The article states that a 19-year-old boy came to Xuanwu Hospital for treatment because of progressive memory loss. Two years ago, he found it difficult to concentrate on his studies in high school, and then began to suffer from obvious short-term memory loss , such as being unable to remember what happened a day ago or forgetting where his personal belongings were.

The patient also had difficulty reading and reacting, and gradually his memory became worse and worse, he would lose things from time to time, and even couldn't remember whether he had eaten . Although his academic performance before the onset was above average, he was eventually unable to complete his studies and had to drop out. The patient is still able to live independently.
The paper stated that the hospital conducted a variety of examinations for the patient, including the most authoritative means of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease - cerebrospinal fluid index detection and PET scan, and the patient also underwent a variety of scale tests. Scan images showed that the patient had mild brain atrophy and some cerebrospinal fluid indicators were abnormal. The patient was eventually clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The paper stated that the patient is the youngest case reported to date that meets the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the patient has no family history of genetic diseases, and no other causes of memory impairment such as genetics, infections, and systemic diseases can be found. After whole genome sequencing, the patient was not found to carry any risk or pathogenic gene mutations, which ruled out the possibility of familial AD, and its pathogenesis needs further study. Jia Longfei, one of the authors of the paper and chief physician of the Department of Neurology at Xuanwu Hospital, said that citizens do not need to worry too much about the rare cases discovered this time . "Some of the young patients discovered now are mainly due to technological advances. It should be said that there were some young people with the disease before, but they were not confirmed due to technical reasons."

Amnesia or Alzheimer's?

Many netizens are worried: I often forget things, is it a sign of Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer's patients show symptoms of decreased cognitive function, behavioral disorders, and decreased living ability. However, many people also have forgetfulness. How to distinguish them? Generally speaking, the difference between the two is reflected in the following 6 aspects:

Recent memory impairment & short-term memory impairment

Senile amnesia manifests as partial impairment of recent memory, which can be recalled after prompting, while Alzheimer's disease is mainly characterized by complete impairment of short-term memory, which cannot be recalled even after prompting.

No cognitive impairment & executive, visual-spatial, and language dysfunction

Forgetfulness is not accompanied by other cognitive impairments, while Alzheimer's patients often have disorders of executive function, visual-spatial function, and language function.

Normal mood & indifferent

People with Alzheimer's disease often become apathetic and lack basic emotional expressions.

Clear thinking & Confused thinking

People with amnesia still have clear thinking, and they also have the ability to express themselves in language and the ability to reason and analyze, while Alzheimer's patients have confused thinking, poor language, and lack sound reasoning and analytical abilities.

Worried about poor memory & not aware of memory loss

Forgetful people often express great anxiety about their poor memory, whereas people with Alzheimer's disease are unaware of their memory loss.

Able to take care of themselves & gradually losing the ability to take care of themselves

Forgetful elderly people can maintain normal self-care ability, while elderly people with Alzheimer's disease will gradually lose the ability to take care of themselves even if they do not have physical illness.
60 seconds self-test!

There is also a little trick to teach you how to self-test Alzheimer's disease in 60 seconds↓↓↓

Draw a clock on a piece of white paper, write the hour numbers in order, and mark the direction of the pointer at 11:10. The judgment criteria must meet three points:

① The face of a clock is allowed to have slight defects, but it must be round;

② Write the twelve numbers accurately without any overlap or confusion;

③ There must be two pointers, and they must point to the correct time together. The hour hand must be significantly shorter than the minute hand, and the intersection of the pointers must be close to the center of the clock.

Wu Liyong, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurology at Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, introduced that this form of clock drawing can be used to do a simple self-test at home to detect early-stage Alzheimer's patients.

If the tester meets the three requirements mentioned above, then it should be normal; but if one or two of them have problems, then there may be some early problems that require early treatment at the hospital .

Source: China National Radio Comprehensive News Morning Post, CCTV Life Circle, etc.