Test May Sniff Out Alzheimer’s

A simple scratch and sniff test may help doctors identify patients with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said Monday.

They found that patients with early Alzheimer’s disease may be unable to smell certain odors, including menthol, cloves, pineapple, natural gas, lilac, lemon and leather.

“Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is critical for patients and their families to receive the most beneficial treatment and medications,” said Dr. Davangere Devanand, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at Columbia University in New York, who led the study.

Alzheimer’s, which affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans, is an incurable and always fatal brain disease.

It starts out with mild memory loss but progresses to damage the brain severely, causing confusion and eventually leaving the patient unable to care for himself or herself.

There are some drugs that may help slow the progression of the early disease, and researchers are working on vaccines and new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.

While some simple tests such as a challenge to draw a clock face can point to Alzheimer’s, in the early stages it is often difficult to tell whether a patient has the disease or some other form of memory loss that may or may not lead to dementia.