Mild Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis But Alzeimers Symptoms

[Mel75]

My Grandmother has recently been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment following an MRI scan. We were quite surprised by this because her symptoms have been quite severe and these happened rapidly within a short space of time.
Symptoms include the complete loss of conversation and making everything up, repeating sentences over and over again, obsessions with people and things, rooting moving and hiding things, loss of appetite and weight, unsteadiness, anger outbursts, lack of interest and consideration in others, and working against everyone and refusing help in everything that you try to do.
A healthcare professional advised us that Alzeimers and Dementia does not always show up on scans and I am wondering if anything else is experiencing these types of symptoms with MCI?.

 

[marionq]

At the start of the pandemic my sister in law had a complete breakdown showing many of the signs of Alzheimer’s that I am familiar with. The social services moved quickly because of police call outs and neighbour involvement and she was whisked into a care home. Over the months with good care, feeding, company and attention the worst of her symptoms diminished and she was said to have MCI. I agreed with that as she definitely improved. Sadly she was then diagnosed with cancer and died last week.

 

[karaokePete]

Hello and welcome @Mel75

When my wife was diagnosed with MCI, after various cognition tests and an MRI scan, the symptoms I was reporting indicated that something more was going on so the Specialist arranged a deeper PET scan. It was the PET scan that showed the damage that was consistent with the symptoms and the diagnosis was changed to dementia.

My understanding is that the deeper SPEC or PET scans show more of the brain but aren't arranged first because they are more expensive than the MRI or CT scans, which are often sufficient.

It may be worth pushing for a deeper type of scan.

 

[Lawson58]

Initially, my husband was given a diagnosis of MCI but I saw it as a stepping stone until we could get all the required testing done to finally get a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

My husband became very paranoid and his suspicions about me were difficult to deal with. There is a huge variety of different behaviours as people progress and these may or may not change as the condition progresses.

Your grandmother needs a full assessment before a diagnosis of dementia can be made. My husband had scans and at lengthy psychological assessment and I had interviews with the specialist and an OT before a team meeting to make the final diagnosis.

 

[canary]

About 50% of people who are given a diagnosis of MCI have this diagnosis changed to dementia within 12 months
Start keeping a dairy of all the strange things that she is doing so that you can refer to it at her next appointment. Make sure that someone goes with her.