L’Alzheimer’s is the disease with whom he lived until the end of his days Lucia Zagaria, wife of Lino Banfi, died at the age of 85 in the past few hours. It is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease. Currently it is estimated that around 5 percent of the over 65 population and around 20 percent of over 85 year olds are affected, but unfortunately there is no shortage of onset at younger ages. Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing a deterioration of cognitive functions, namely memory, the reasoning process and language, until it leads to the loss of autonomy.
But how does this pathology originate? It seems to be linked to the alteration of the metabolism of the amyloid beta precursor protein, which, suddenly and for reasons still unknown to science, leads to the creation of a neurotoxic substance which slowly agglomerates in the brain. The most frequent symptoms of Alzheimer’s are memory loss, difficulty in carrying out normal daily activities with consequent loss of autonomy, disturbances and impoverishment of language, spatial and temporal disorientation, depression, sleep disturbances and behavioral disturbances in a more advanced state (delusions and hallucinations).
ALZHEIMER, LUCIA ZAGARIA’S DISEASE: DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
How is Alzheimer’s diagnosed? illness What struck Lucia Zagaria, Lino Banfi’s wife? There is a series of specific brain tests, capable of detecting the quantities of the neurotoxic protein beta amyloid. These are high-definition magnetic resonance imaging, fluorine deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET), positron emission tomography (PET) with amyloid tracers, and a lumbar puncture to measure the presence of amyloid in the cerebrospinal fluid. amyloid beta and tau protein.
Treatments for Alzheimer’s they consist of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drugs, which counteract the symptoms of the disease and slow it down. There are also other medicines that help keep the most disabling manifestations of the disease at bay, including depression, sleep disturbances and behavioral disturbances. Finally, recently, the possibility of using antibodies against beta amyloid has also been tested, with unflattering results so far.
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