What tests are used to help make an Alzheimer's diagnosis?

Then, we do a routine set of blood work. 

We look at vitamin B12 and folic acid and thyroid function and the usual kinds of things, kidney function, liver function, red blood count, white blood count, all those things we look at.

Then, we decide if we want to have any imaging studies, any brain imaging studies. Most of the time when we see folks, older folks in particular in the office, I usually ask them if they’ve had a fall and if they’ve gone to the emergency department. If they have had a fall and they’ve gone to the emergency department, I can almost guarantee that they’ve had to have CT scan so I can look at that as starters. Those things, we can relatively quickly and we can get some idea about what’s going on. Other imaging studies would be MRIs and PET scans and those sorts of things but we don’t do those right off many times. We just kind of collect this other information.