Science/Medicine : Alzheimer’s? Maybe Not

Some people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease apparently don’t have the disorder, but really suffer neurological damage as a result of workplace exposure to metal vapors and dry cleaning solvents, a Los Angeles researcher said.

USC psychologist David Freed, who is also co-director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Consortium of Southern California, used a picture-recognition test to check the memory of 80 elderly patients diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease.

Most of the Alzheimer’s patients forgot a higher percentage of the pictures as time progressed, but five showed a dramatic improvement in recall 24 hours after the first test and, unlike the other patients, their memory didn’t continue to deteriorate over the next year.

Puzzled, Freed examined the five men’s medical records and found they all had previous long-term, on-the-job exposure to solvents or metal vapors, particularly copper.

A large-scale study will be needed to establish a solid link between environmental exposure to metal vapors and solvents and development of symptoms that can be mistaken as Alzheimer’s, he added.

“This study, while highly preliminary, indicates that such substances may . . . play a role in the kind of dementia and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” Freed said.