Certain cases of dementia — potentially up to 10% — could instead be undiagnosed liver disease and related neurological issues, according to a study published Jan. 31 in JAMA.
Additionally, researchers believe that the 10% of undiagnosed liver disease and brain dysfunction could possibly be resolved with treatment.
For the study, researchers analyzed a decade of data — spanning 2009 to 2019 — from 177,422 veterans who had a diagnosis of dementia, and looked for a high Fibrosis-4 score, which is a sign of advanced liver fibrosis that can lead to cirrhosis.
Across the dataset, around 10.3% of patients who did not previously have a cirrhosis diagnosis showed high Fibrosis-4 scores and signs of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a neurological disorder that is often challenging to distinguish from dementia.
But, a reversal of symptoms is possible through treatment for metabolic encephalopathies like HE, and researchers suggest clinicians pay particular attention to "the determinants of undiagnosed cirrhosis among veterans with dementia" and use that information to help properly "identify those eligible for screening and subsequent HE therapy."