A Beijing-based expert team has reported the world's first case of a 19-year-old adolescent with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a condition normally associated with elderly people.
The team, led by Jia Jianping from the Innovation Center for Neurological Disorders, Xuanwu hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, released the research results in a peer-reviewed medical journal called Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
The study confirmed that AD is no longer a disease exclusive to the elderly. Jia called for more attention to the possibility of AD occurring in younger people, which will become a challenging issue in the future.
The patient developed memory disorders at 17 years old and was then diagnosed with AD at 19. The patient first began to have difficulty concentrating on learning. One year later, the patient suffered significant short-term memory loss, an inability to recall the previous day's events or where personal belongings were stored, as well as difficulty reading and slow reactions, according to Jia's team.
Later the patient continued to suffer gradual memory decline, even struggling to remember having eaten. As a result, the patient had to drop out of high school. The gender of the patient is unknown.
Jia's team said that the patient has no family history of AD and no other causes of memory impairment such as genetic issues, infections or other diseases.
Since the first case of AD was reported in 1906, it has been widely believed that AD mainly occurs in the elderly. AD is a chronic neurodegenerative disease with slow onset and gradual loss of cognition, memory and speech and an increase in mental disorders over time, eventually leading to inability to take care of oneself. It is currently difficult to treat the disease.
19岁确诊阿尔茨海默病，宣武医院报告世界最年轻病例
近日，首都医科大学宣武医院神经疾病高创中心报告了一例阿尔茨海默病病例，患者为19岁男孩，这可能是迄今世界上最年轻的阿尔茨海默病患者。相关论文1月31日发表在《阿尔茨海默病杂志》（Journal of Alzheimer's Disease）上。
