2024 Children's of Alabama/UAB Annual Report

New Programs

New Down Syndrome Clinic Aims to Provide Care Across the Lifespan by Matt Windsor

Not very long ago, in the early 1980s, people with Down syndrome were not expected to live past 25. Today that number is up to 60 years old. But the extra years come with questions that few doctors or parents know how to answer. For instance, many of the relatively small number of people with Down syndrome who have lived to age 40 have developed dementia and other Alzheimer’s-like symptoms by then. But the medications doctors use to treat Alzheimer’s are not approved for people this young.

Snehal Khatri, M.D.

“We hear from parents that this is the thing they worry about the most,” said Snehal Khatri, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and medical

2024 Academic Annual Report

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