Institutes

Memory disorders

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Senior physician

Giuseppe Magnani

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In last few years the increasing of population ageing is associated with an increase of incidence of secondary and primary forms of dementia. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most frequent form of dementia. The identification of subjects affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with a high risk of conversion into AD is a very important issue for therapeutic strategies. Aim of this unit is to identify early markers of disease to achieve the diagnosis in the early stage of AD studying MCI patients using advanced neuroradiological and neurophysiological techniques and repeated neuropsychological evaluations in order to find elements able to distinguish between those who convert and those who do not convert into AD.

Research activity

​​​​​​The research activity of Memory disorders Unit continued the work started during the previous years, which was designed to improve the diagnosis at an early stage in the various forms of dementia. Particularly in the patient with the onset of dementia in early stage (age less than 65 years old) we decided to make routine a series of advanced diagnostic tests such as the dosage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (β-amyloid, protein τ and phospho-τ), 3 Tesla brain MRI, [18F] FDG-PET brain, that, associated with the complete neuropsychological evaluation, have allowed us to improve our diagnostic capabilities in vivo by limiting the risk of diagnostic errors since, as is well known, the diagnosis of certainty in different forms of dementia is only confirmed with a post-mortem examination. This approach allow us also to select accurately patients that might be enrolled in the international multicenter pharmacological trials in which we are involved.