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However, differentiating between Alzheimers disease and frontotemporal dementia can be challenging, expert have revealed.

Now a study has revealed a procedure called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) could help determine which dementia a patient is suffering from.

It can even help spot signs of Alzheimers disease.

TMS therapy is carried out with a large electromagnetic coil place against the scalp, which carries electrical currents which stimulate nerve cells.

Frontotemporal dementia is now thought to make up 10 to 15 per cent dementia cases.

It is often diagnosed as a psychiatric problem, Alzheimers disease or Parkinsons because it causes behaviour changes and language issues.

There is no cure for frontotemporal dementia, but diagnosing the disease could help patients manage symptoms and avoid unnecessary treatment.

Making the correct diagnosis can be difficult, said study author Barbara Borroni, MD, of the University of Brescia in Brescia, Italy.

Current methods can be expensive brain scans or invasive lumbar punctures involving a needle inserted in the spine, so its exciting that we may be able to make the diagnosis quickly and easily with this non-invasive procedure.

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Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia could be differentiated

Using TMS, researchers were able to measure the brains ability to conduct electrical signals among various circuits in the brain.

They found that people with Alzheimers disease mainly had problems with one type of circuit, while people with frontotemporal dementia had problems with another type of circuit.

Researchers were then able to accurately distinguish frontotemporal dementia from Alzheimers disease with 90 percent accuracy.

It also differentiated Alzheimers disease from healthy brains with 87 percent accuracy and frontotemporal dementia from healthy brains with 86 percent accuracy.

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The results were almost as good when researchers tested only people with mild forms of the disease.

If our results can be replicated with larger studies, this will be very exciting, said Dr Borroni.

Doctors might soon be able to quickly and easily diagnose frontotemporal dementia with this non-invasive procedure.

This disease unfortunately cant be cured, but it can be managed especially if it is caught early.

There are types of dementia, dementia with lewy bodies, which can cause memory problems and vascular dementia.

This comes after the nine risk factors for dementia were revealed.

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Dementia symptoms and Alzheimer's disease could be dignosed with new procedure - Express.co.uk