MRI may soon spot Alzheimer's

MRI may soon spot Alzheimer's:- - India News - Webindia123.com: "MRI may soon spot Alzheimer's:-
London March 14, 2005 1:55:15 PM IST

The markers of Alzheimer's disease - amyloid plaques in the brain - can now be detected in living mice using MRI( magnetic resonance imaging) scanners with the help of a new flourine tracer, claim scientists in Japan.
The finding raises the possibility that people without overt symptoms may soon be diagnosed and treated in time. Currently, the standard way to confirm the presence of the plaques, and thus the disease, is by autopsy.
Amyloid plaques are insoluble protein clumps in the brain which form early on in Alzheimer's disease and can precede dementia by many years. Identifying people with Alzheimer's while they are still asymptomatic means the disease could in theory be slowed, or even stopped, before irreversible neuron loss takes place. Other attempts to use brain scans, including PET and SPECT, have had some success. But PET, for example, is fifty times as expensive as MRI, has lower resolution and exposes patients to radiation.
Takaomi Saido at the Riken Brain Science Institute in Wako, Japan, and his team, have developed a new, non-toxic tracer that attaches itself to the amyloid plaques in the brain and can be detected by regular MRI scanners. The tracer is made from a form of fluorine that is a common additive in drinking water, and a form of hydrogen, which is known to bind to amyloid.(ANI)"