Mild cognitive impairment is a term used to describe a condition or conditions where subjects have recognisable degrees of objective cognitive impairment which fall short of current standardised definitions for either a dementia syndrome in general, or for particular disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies or frontotemporal dementia. This chapter summarises some of the key issues surrounding the historical development of pre-dementia syndromes, considers the conceptual issues related to the use of the term mild cognitive impairment as a diagnosis, summarises what is known regarding epidemiology, clinical features, pathophysiology, prognosis, therapeutics and outlines current clinical practice in the area. The chapter concludes with a review of recent research developments and looks at the new diagnostic criteria, in particular the potential use of biomarkers to allow diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at an early, or mild cognitive impairment, stage.
Gait and balance disturbances are common in young urbanites and associated with cognitive impairment. Air pollution and the historical development of Alzheimer's disease in the young
