A treatment normally used for a rare neurological condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus -- a type of dementia -- may have the potential to help Alzheimer's disease patients.
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is caused by an excess of cerebrospinal fluid deep within the brain. Although the root cause is unknown, the condition is most common in older patients. Doctors typically diagnose NPH based on three symptoms: difficulty walking, urinary incontinence, and memory loss. A treatment involving implanting a shunt in the brain to drain the fluid can slow or relieve the condition.
Until recently, NPH was considered a separate disease from Alzheimer's, but Dr. Sebastian Koga of the University of Virginia's Health Science Center feels that "NPH is not a specific disease process, but part of a spectrum of dementia." He hypothesizes that the shunting technique used for NPH patients could also help to treat patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
In clinical trials, some patients with NPH who also had Alzheimer's did benefit from the shunt procedure, but some did not. Koga and his colleagues are researching methods for identifying biomarkers that indicate an excess of cerebrospinal fluid in order to predict which patients would benefit from the shunting procedure in the future and which would not. Still, the research points to potential strides in future Alzheimer's research.
