According to recent research, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is commonly misdiagnosed. To investigate the frequency and nature of misdiagnoses, researchers used data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Database on autopsies of nearly 1,100 patients with confirmed AD, including neuropathological and clinical diagnoses. 10.8 % were false positives, with clinical presentation of AD that was not confirmed on pathology, and an equal number (10.8%) were false negatives, showing AD pathology but not clinically diagnosed with the disease. Interestingly, of the false positives, over 30% had primary vascular pathology. Researchers speculated that multiple overlapping pathologies could have played a role in the variance of diagnoses, but underscored that regardless of the reasons, the potential implications of misdiagnoses are significant, noting that diagnostic errors can have important implications for patient treatment and outcomes.
W. Qian, D Munoz, et al. Misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: inconsistencies between clinical diagnosis and neuropathological confirmation (Funder(s): University of Toronto; Canadian Institutes of Health Research). Alzheimer’s Asso. International Conf. Toronto 2016 July 22-28.