RESUMEN
AIM: The differentiation theory on kidney turbidity is used to recognize the relevant characters of Alzheimer disease. METHODS: The analysis is carried on the interrelationship between kidney turbidity and Alzheimer disease in the aspects of pathology, pathogenesis and clinical manifestations. RESULTS: It was discovered in modern neural pathological examination that in the patients with Alzheimer disease, the cerebral cortex was atrophic, the convolution becomes flat, the cerebral groove was widened, the ventricle was extended, brain weight was declined and cortical nerve cells were de creased in various degrees. All of those changes were the manifestations of kidney essence deficiency in Chinese medicine. The main mechanism on neuron loss caused by Alzheimer disease was that oxygenic free radical works on nerve neurons and induces the increased Ca2+ inner-flow. Con cerning to the theory of Chinese medicine, oxygenic free radical was taken as "kidney turbidity". In the patients with Alzheimer disease, insufficient kid ney essence resulted in malnourishment of heart. In addition, upward dis turbance of kidney turbidity and abnormality of heart mind projected the brain and affected brain function, resulting in recent memory disturbance that was the initial symptom of Alzheimer disease. CONCLUSION: Concerning to the treatment of Alzheimer disease, Chinese medicine emphasizes not only on reinforcing kidney and filling-up essence, but also rather on eliminating kidney turbidity, for which, the method of re solving turbidity and damp is applied specially.