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Enfermedad de Alzheimer

  • Overview
  • Theory
  • Diagnosis
  • Management
  • Follow up
  • Resources
Last reviewed: 14 Aug 2025
Last updated: 05 Sep 2023

Summary

Definition

History and exam

Key diagnostic factors

  • presencia de factores de riesgo
  • pérdida de la memoria
  • desorientación
  • disfasia nominal
  • extraviar objetos/perderse
  • apatía
  • disminución en las actividades de la vida diaria (AVD) y las actividades instrumentales de la vida diaria (AIVD)
  • cambio de personalidad
  • exploración física inicial sin hallazgos relevantes
Full details

Other diagnostic factors

  • cambios en el estado de ánimo
  • pensamiento abstracto deficiente
  • dispraxia constructiva
  • prosopagnosia
  • autoprosopagnosia
Full details

Risk factors

  • edad avanzada
  • antecedentes familiares
  • genética
  • síndrome de Down
  • enfermedad cerebrovascular
  • factores de estilo de vida y medicamentos
  • escolaridad inferior a la educación secundaria
  • traumatismo craneoencefálico
  • depresión
  • pérdida de la audición
  • hiperlipidemia
  • sexo femenino
  • nivel elevado de homocisteína en plasma
  • consumo de bebidas endulzadas artificialmente
Full details

Diagnostic investigations

1st investigations to order

  • pruebas cognitivas a pie de cama
  • hemograma completo (HC)
  • perfil metabólico
  • hormona estimulante de la tiroides (TSH)
  • vitamina B12 sérica
  • cribado de tóxicos en orina
  • tomografía computarizada (TC)
  • resonancia magnética (IRM)
Full details

Investigations to consider

  • análisis de líquido cefalorraquídeo (LCR)
  • reagina plasmática rápida en suero (RPR)/pruebas de laboratorio de investigación de enfermedades venéreas (VDRL)
  • virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH) en suero
  • prueba neuropsicológica formal
  • pruebas genéticas
  • exploración por tomografía por emisión de positrones (TEP) con fluorodesoxiglucosa (FDG)
  • TC de emisión monofotónica (SPECT)
  • electroencefalograma (EEG)
Full details

Emerging tests

  • tomografía por emisión de positrones (TEP) del amiloide

Treatment algorithm

ONGOING

todos los pacientes

Contributors

Authors

Judith Neugroschl, MD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

New York

NY

Disclosures

JN participates in research funded by National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants. The Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is a site for clinical research but JN is not the site Principal Investigator, has no role in purchasing nor choosing the studies, and gains no compensation if they succeed. JN helps to edit the Focus on Healthy Aging Alzheimer's yearly report.

Acknowledgements

Dr Judith Neugroschl would like to gratefully acknowledge Dr Brandy R. Matthews, Dr Asif S. Bhutto, and Dr Julie K. Gammack, the previous contributors to this topic.

Disclosures

BRM, ASB, and JKG declare that they have no competing interests.

Peer reviewers

Roy J. Goldberg, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD

Medical Director

Kings Harbor Multicare Center

New York

NY

Disclosures

RJG declares that he has no competing interests.

Philip Scheltens, MD, PhD

Professor of Neurology

Department of Neurology/Alzheimer Center

VU University Medical Center

Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Disclosures

PS declares that he has no competing interests.

Peer reviewer acknowledgements

BMJ Best Practice topics are updated on a rolling basis in line with developments in evidence and guidance. The peer reviewers listed here have reviewed the content at least once during the history of the topic.

Disclosures

Peer reviewer affiliations and disclosures pertain to the time of the review.

References

Our in-house evidence and editorial teams collaborate with international expert contributors and peer reviewers to ensure that we provide access to the most clinically relevant information possible.

Key articles

GBD 2016 Dementia Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurol. 2019 Jan;18(1):88-106.Full text  Abstract

Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Lancet. 2020 Aug 8;396(10248):413-46.Full text  Abstract

Fink HA, Linskens EJ, Silverman PC, et al. Accuracy of biomarker testing for neuropathologically defined Alzheimer disease in older adults with dementia. Ann Intern Med. 2020 May 19;172(10):669-77. Abstract

Birks JS, Harvey RJ. Donepezil for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018 Jun 18;(6):CD001190.Full text  Abstract

Birks JS, Chong LY, Grimley Evans J. Rivastigmine for Alzheimer's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Sep 22;(9):CD001191.Full text  Abstract

McShane R, Westby MJ, Roberts E, et al. Memantine for dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Mar 20;(3):CD003154.Full text  Abstract

Reference articles

A full list of sources referenced in this topic is available to users with access to all of BMJ Best Practice.

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  • Guidelines

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  • Patient information

    Enfermedad de Alzheimer y otros tipos de demencia

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  • Calculators

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