Chinese diagnosis of world’s youngest person with probable Alzheimer’s set to change thinking about disease
- 19-year-old identified with the condition after he had trouble studying, frequently lost belongings, could not remember eating and had to withdraw from high school
- ‘Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimer’s disease may become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future’: researchers
A 19-year-old male was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease after his memory declined gradually over two years, according to researchers from Capital Medical University’s Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing.
The authors said the patient had characteristics typical of Alzheimer’s disease, including memory loss and hippocampal atrophy, a shrinkage that is an early marker of the disease.
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They ruled out other causes that may have induced the patient’s cognitive impairment and concluded that he met the diagnostic criteria for probable Alzheimer’s disease.
Their study was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on January 31.
The study altered the world’s understanding of the typical age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease and overturned the traditional view that Alzheimer’s disease was exclusively for the elderly, the authors wrote in a statement on February 1.
“[The study] proposed to pay attention to the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimer’s disease may become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future,” they said.
