The relationship between Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases can contribute to the knowledge and fight against these pathologies that affect a high percentage of the older population. This was assured by Rafael Blesa, full academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), during his speech at the Third International Act of the RAED, held between 15 and 22 July in various cities of the Baltic.
Blesa presented the conclusions of a study carried out by the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation and the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, which has determined that 85% of people with Down syndrome end up developing Alzheimer’s disease. “The process begins 20 years before the onset of the first symptoms, when there is an alteration in the amyloid protein, and now, through a lumbar puncture, we can know what is happening in the brain of a person and detect the disease many years before it manifests itself”, explained the academician.
“The program currently being developed with people with Down syndrome will help to understand the complexity of this disease, because only by knowing it can we combat it effectively. The key is to make an early diagnosis”, he concluded.
