ARTICLE: Misdiagnosing Dementia

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Misdiagnosing Dementia
Wed. Feb. 25th. 2004

It has become possibly the most feared epidemic of older Americans. An elderly 
person who's losing their memory,
perhaps becomes incontinent is often told they have Alzheimer's, Dementia or 
maybe Parkinson's if they have trouble
walking.

Dr. Gail Rosseau of the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch 
says that nearly a million people who have
been told they have Alzheimer's or some other dementia, may actually have a 
reversible, even curable condition called
Normal Pressure Hydrocphalus or NPH.

These are normal fluid filled spaces int he brain called the ventricles. If 
spaces are too filled with fluid the
patient has symptoms. And the symptoms are gait problems, trouble with walking, 
urinary control, thinking problems.

The fix to this condition is called a Shunt. A soft flexible tube that drains 
excess cerebro spinal fluid from the
brain ventricles and it runs all the way down to the abdominal cavity, where 
it's reabsorbed.

The signs of NPH are trouble walking, sometimes incontinence and memory or 
thinking problems. Those symptoms are reason
for a CAT scan or MRI if the ventricles are swollen doctors will do a three-ay 
spinal tap to drain off fluid. Only if
you get better will doctors consider installing a shunt.

SOURCE: WILX-TV, MI


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