Published on:
Tuesday, 12th August, 2008 11:44:42 GMT
Source:
Yahoo! News
Category:
Health
TUESDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- PET scans may provide
doctors with a non-invasive method of detecting Alzheimer's
disease-related brain plaques, Finnish researchers say.
Currently, the only reliable way to assess the presence of such
plaques is through analysis of brain tissue samples obtained when a
patient is alive or after death. In their study, University of Kuopio
researchers examined 10 patients without severe dementia who'd undergone a
biopsy of their brain's frontal cortex to check for normal-pressure
hydrocephalus, an abnormal increase of cerebrospinal fluid in the
brain.
Cognitive impairment is a symptom of both normal-pressure hydrocephalus
and Alzheimer's, and 22 percent to 42 percent of patients with symptoms of
normal-pressure hydrocephalus have brain lesions characteristic of
Alzheimer's disease, according to background information in a news release
about the study. The biopsies showed that six of the study participants
had Alzheimer's-related beta-amyloid brain plaques.
For this study, all 10 patients were injected with a marker called
carbon 11-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B ([11c]PiB) before having a
90-minute PET scan. The patients with beta-amyloid plaques had a higher
uptake of the marker in certain brain areas than patients without the
plaques.
"The study supports the use of [11C] PiB PET in the evaluation of
beta-amyloid deposition in, for example, mild cognitive impairment,
Alzheimer's disease or normal-pressure hydrocephalus," the researchers
wrote.
"Large and prospective studies are required to verify whether [11C]PiB
PET will become a tool in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. Another
potential use of [11c]PiB would be the quantitative monitoring of
beta-amyloid deposits in the brain in subjects under treatment in
pharmaceutical trials of early Alzheimer's disease targeting amyloid
accumulation," they added.
The study was published online this week in the journal Archives of
Neurology and was expected to be in the October print issue of the
journal.
More information
The Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation has more about Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.
