This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on ISI (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Alzheimer Disease  • Behavioral Neurology  • Alert me on articles by topic

Arch Neurol. 2000;57:783-784.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

WHEN AN EAGLE swoops down from a cliff to kill a dove Helen of Troy interprets this as an omen predicting that Odysseus would return after years of wandering to reclaim his queen and his palace. No one, including his son Telemachus, even knew whether Odysseus was alive or capable of defeating the suitors of his wife who occupied his home in Ithaca. The omen proved to be correct, of course. While interpreting signs years in advance of events was never difficult for the ancient Greeks, we modern peoples have more difficulty and need to be cautious in the interpretation of studies predicting future events. This is particularly true when reviewing harbingers of incipient Alzheimer disease (AD).

The study by Elias et al¹ in this issue of the ARCHIVES suggests that a "preclinical phase" of AD exists that precedes the diagnosis by 10 or more years. Others have found that . . . [Full Text of this Article]