How does a doctor test for dementia?

How does a doctor test for dementia?

Gus Alva (Medical Director, ATP Clinical Research) gives expert video advice on: What causes dementia?; Who is most at risk for developing dementia?; How do I prevent myself from developing dementia? and more...

The typical tests that are utilized include lab testing to make sure that there isn't an infection or metabolic abnormality or electrolyte imbalance or deficiency of a vitamin. In addition to that, when the individual is early on in the disease state, maybe a battery of neuro-psychological testing can help out to a great degree. Neuroimaging, such as CT scans or an MRI scan are very helpful for taking a look at structures and ruling out other things that could cause a problem. Functional scans of the brain are also very useful because they can help differentiate dementias. So something like Positron Emission Tomography, PET scan, is very, very useful for that, as well. In cases where we might expect an infectious process of say, the central nervous system, lumbar puncture can also be done. But these are more esoteric tests. The usual way of diagnosing somebody with this illness is to rule out things that are reversible, that have a strong suspicion that this is in fact the illness and to do some baseline, at least baseline neuroimaging with that individual.