DALLAS: Alzheimer’s disease was once unique among illnesses in that a definitive diagnosis could be made only after death. Symptoms of the devastating assault on the brain could be seen from the outside, but those external signs also could be associated with other types of dementia.
Opening up the skull reveals the telltale signs: A shrivelled brain with expanded, fluid-filled spaces called ventricles. On a microscopic scale, the wreckage can be observed post-mortem with even more specificity…