Alzheimer's disease can be excluded as a diagnosis if there is a sudden onset of memory deficit or early occurrence of gait disturbances, seizures, or behavioral changes.
Other exclusion criteria are:
- Hemiparesis, sensory loss, visual field deficits.
- Major depression.
- Cerebrovascular disease.
- Toxic and/or metabolic abnormalities.
- MRI FLAIR or T2 signal abnormalities in the medial temporal lobe that are consistent with infectious or vascular insults.
In an essay that accompanied the new criteria proposal, Norman L. Foster, M.D., of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, wrote that although "presented as criteria, the proposal from Dubois and colleagues should be thought of as a crucial framework for future discussion."
But Dr. Foster pointed out that as "currently constructed, the criteria would be impossible to implement, because they do not include an operational definition of methods and abnormal results."
