Imaging Detects Alzheimer's
The American Medical Association (AMA) reports that PET (postron emission tomography) is able to detect the progression of Alzheimer's in patients with dementia. Preclinical Alzheimer's disease can be detected by screening an individual's cerebrospinal fluid for biomarkers of the condition. In addition, imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) can detect deposits of the substance linked to dementia in living patients.
159 older adults (average age 71.5) who had undergone PET scans and did not have symptoms of
dementia were assessed. These patients were followed for between 0.8 and 5.5 years after having the scan and underwent between two and six assessments for dementia during that timeframe.
A total of 23 participants progressed to clinically detectable dementia during follow-up, and nine were diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer type. These diagnoses were made by specialist clinicians who diagnosed the condition at an earlier stage than typically occurs and corroborated the diagnosis by declines in multiple cognitive domains as well as a loss of volume in certain areas of the brain.
If this new discovery can assist clinicians in detecting dementia and Alzheimer's symptoms earlier, treatment can be more effective.
This study provides support for the premise that preclinical Alzheimer's disease, detected by the cerebrospinal fluid signature for Alzheimer's disease predicts symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. The study is published at Arch Neurol. 2009;66[12]:1469-1475.
