Mild memory loss could mean an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.

"It seems that mild cognitive impairments are not a part of the normal aging process," said Kathryn P. Riley, Ph.D, and lead author of the study. "Our findings and those of other researchers suggest that Alzheimer's pathology in the brain is affecting older adults long before the full symptoms of the disease appear."

Their study included 130 nuns, aged 75 to 102, who had mild memory loss or other cognitive impairment. All were participants in the larger Nun Study. (see earlier Alzheimer's Week story)

In the recent study, researchers compared the levels and distribution of neurofibrillary tangles (abnormal protein deposits) in the nuns' brains to results of cognitive tests taken within months of their deaths.

Data indicated that levels of "tangles" paralleled increasingly poor performance on cognitive tests. It also showed more tangles in patients when memory deficits accompanied cognitive impairment, as opposed to those subjects who suffered only from cognitive loss.

While the research supports awareness that mild cognitive impairment is a risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease, Riley said her study also indicates that not everyone with impairments will develop full-blown dementia.

In fact, almost half the nuns who experienced mild cognitive impairment accompanied by higher levels of tangles never developed Alzheimer's disease.

Riley stresses the need for full evaluation when memory or cognitive loss is suspected.

"This information may be useful in light of newly developing treatments designed to delay the onset of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease," Riley said. "Researchers and clinicians in the field of aging hope someday to be able to prevent mild cognitive impairments from progressing on to more severe conditions and ultimately, to be able to prevent the impairments from occurring in the first place."

Other sources: Annals of Neurology, University of Kentucky