New diagnostic guideline for Alzheimer disease:An overview

Atsushi Iwata¹⁾ and Takeshi Iwatsubo²⁾

¹⁾Department of Molecular Neuroscience on Neurodegeneration, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo
²⁾Department of Neuropathology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo

Diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) has been made based on the presence of clinical manifestations of dementia that are likely due to AD pathology, and by excluding other dementing disorders, in the 1984 criteria of ADRDA-NIA. The new NIA-AA guideline for the diagnosis of AD published in 2011 focuses on a wider chronological spectrum of AD, including prodromal or asymptomatic stages, of which the diagnosis of background pathology of AD has become possible by novel biomarkers and molecular imaging techniques:AD dementia, MCI due to AD, and preclinical AD were defined. The rationales for diagnosing AD at earlier stages for the future early treatment, and technologies that enable the very early diagnosis of AD pathology will be discussed.

Address correspondence to Dr. Takashi Iwatsubo, Department of Neuropathology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo (7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan)