Alzheimer’s at 27? What’s happening here?

*For medical professionals only

See how the experts from the Department of Neurology of Huashan Hospital analyze layer by layer to decipher the cause of dementia in a 27-year-old man!

Review

33 years old, male.

Complaints: Progressive unresponsiveness and cognitive decline for 6 years.

History of present illness:

Figure 1: Medical History

In 2019, her symptoms continued to worsen and she was admitted to our hospital.

Past good health, no history of surgery, trauma, or allergies.

Personal history: 12 years of education (graduate from technical secondary school); long-term working in Xiamen; more than 10 years of smoking history; more than 10 years of drinking history, and frequent drinking in the past 1 year To get drunk.

Family History: No family history of neurological disease; parents and 3 older sisters are healthy.

Physical Exam:

Figure 2: Physical Exam Results

Preliminary positioning, qualitative diagnosis?

Location Diagnostics:

Figure 3: Location Diagnosis

Qualitative Diagnosis:

Figure 4: Qualitative Diagnosis

Preliminary diagnosis of premature dementia based on the above tests.

What causes early-onset dementia?

According to literature reports, there are many causes of early-onset dementia, including neurodegenerative diseases and leukoencephalopathy.

Figure 5: Common causes of early-onset dementia

Clinical features of early-onset dementia

This patient has early-onset AD caused by PSEN1 mutation. There are more than 300 cases of PSEN1-related early-onset AD in the world, including 7 in China. The clinical characteristics are as follows:

Type of mutation: missense mutation, deletion mutation.

Age of onset: 30-60.5 years.

Duration: 1.41-15.9 years.

Symptoms:

Cognitive impairment: Memory impairment is predominant, and executive function, language, visuospatial, orientation, and computational abilities may also be impaired.

Non-cognitive symptoms, emotional behavioral disorders, etc.

Clinically, the age of 65 is usually used as the boundary, with late-onset disease over 65 years old and early-onset disease under 65 years old. More identification details can be found in the video.

Speaking of this, I believe that the teacher has a preliminary understanding of the etiology and clinical characteristics of early-onset dementia.