Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 19; the youngest case in the world

Chinese neurologists have discovered a rare case of Alzheimer’s in a 19-year-old man, making him the youngest in the world.

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Memory loss and cognitive impairment began two years earlier, when the young man was 17 years old.

Before seeing specialists at Capital Medical University in Beijing, he mightn’t even remember what he had eaten for supper the night before.

He is now being followed in a specialized memory clinic, where doctors are still mystified by this unique case.

Medical imaging of his brain showed shrinkage of the hippocampus, responsible for memory.

The tests demonstrated that the patient’s large-scale memory score was 82% lower than his age-matched peers, while his immediate memory score was 87% lower.

The young man had to interrupt his school career before starting his last year of secondary school because of concentration and memory problems, although he can still live independently.

Although the causes are still unknown, researchers believe that this condition might be linked to a virus.

Only 10% of diagnoses of this disease, which mainly affects the elderly, are attributed to patients under the age of 65.

Yet no family history might have predicted that he would be afflicted with this form of dementia, even less so early on.

The majority of cases under the age of 30 are explained by a pathological genetic mutation, which is not the case for this young man.

According to The Daily Mail and Science Alert