Most Persons With Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease Will Not Develop Dementia

Most people diagnosed with preclinical Alzheimer's disease will not develop dementia from Alzheimer's disease during their lifetime ("lifetime risk"). Although a model that estimates lifetime risk of Alzheimer's dementia using biomarkers was successful, the biological changes were detected between 10 and 20 years before changes in memory and thinking occur. Due to alternate health-related issues that arise during these years, few actually develop Alzheimer's-related dementia.

These findings were reported in “Estimation of lifetime risks of Alzheimer's disease dementia using biomarkers for preclinical disease” by Ron Brookmeyer and Nada Abdalla. The researchers devised a . . .