A report by researchers from the ClÃnic-IDIBAPS indicates that differences between the sexes are perceived at the time of diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. According to data from the study, women have more widespread brain atrophy and more pronounced cognitive decline that causes greater memory loss. In addition, women have higher levels of cerebrospinal fluid tau protein, a key biomarker for diagnosis, higher than men when these parameters are compared with healthy people of the same sex.
The study suggests that biological sex could be a factor that had some influence when developing the disease and its subsequent evolution. However, the conclusions of the study must be analyzed with caution given the small number of people who have participated in it. Absolute certainties cannot be obtained, but a path to follow for further investigation is indicated.
The research work involved 106 participants, 62 of whom are people with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and 44 healthy people, from the Alzheimer’s Unit and other cognitive disorders at the ClÃnic Barcelona hospital. Alzheimer’s disease is more common in women, which seems to suggest that being a woman is a risk factor and, therefore, identifying how sex influences the different biomarkers of the disease can help improve diagnosis and better understand the pathophysiology. of the illness. Women are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease as men. The difference is mainly due to women living longer.
Currently, Alzheimer’s disease represents the leading cause of neurodegenerative dementia worldwide, with more than 50 million people affected. In addition to causing memory loss, the neurodegeneration caused by Alzheimer’s disease also affects the functioning of other brain areas that are responsible for cognitive tasks such as language, orientation, or behavior. The study shows that differences for reasons of sex are perceived when the diagnosis is made and that this is something that could be relevant in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, in the diagnosis or in monitoring the response to new drugs.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. In Spain there are some 800,000 people who have Alzheimer’s disease, according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), which represents 60% of all dementia cases. However, this figure indicates that approximately 30% of cases are not diagnosed. In this sense, the Disability Survey of the National Statistics Institute (INE) reveals that there are only about 240,000 diagnosed patients. In the United States there are about 5.8 million people with this disease and about 200,000 people under the age of 65 with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Official predictions predict a notable increase in the number of people with Alzheimer’s and it is expected that in 2060 the cases of this disease will be close to 14 million.
