Is it Alzheimer's disease or another dementia?
"Making the correct diagnosis can be difficult," said study author Barbara Borroni, MD, of the University of Brescia in Brescia, Italy. "Current methods can be expensive brain scans or invasive lumbar punctures involving a needle inserted in the spine, so it's exciting that we may be able to make the diagnosis quickly and easily with this non-invasive procedure." For the technique, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a large electromagnetic coil is placed against the scalp. It creates electrical currents that stimulate nerve cells. Once thought to be rare, frontotemporal dementia is now believed to make up 10 to 15 percent of dementia cases. It is often initially misdiagnosed as a psychiatric problem, Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease because of its wide range of symptoms. The disease generally affects people in their mid-40s to mid-60s and is characterized by severe behavior changes and language problems. While there is no cu...