Seeing into the Alzhei...( ANN ARBOR MI Even though Alzheimer's ...),Health

ANN ARBOR, MI Even though Alzheimer's disease takes a terrible toll on the memories and lives of millions of adults each year, doctors often face great uncertainty when trying to diagnose it in living people. Several other diseases can mimic the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and only an autopsy can confirm a diagnosis for certain.

The lack of a definitive Alzheimer's test didn't matter so much in the past, but in recent years new drugs and therapies have been shown to slow the spiral of memory loss and behavior changes that Alzheimer's patients face. A good new diagnostic test could help patients get help early -- and make the most of their remaining years.

That's why University of Michigan Health System researchers and others are so excited about a kind of medical imaging that they think can tell Alzheimer's disease apart from other disorders. By looking at the brain with a special camera, they hope to give patients a more definitive diagnosis while they can still do something about it.

The "camera" in question is really a machine called a PET scanner; PET stands for positron emission tomography. Doctors already use PET to find cancer and heart problems, but a team led by U-M researchers recently released the first conclusive study showing it could be used to tell Alzheimer's disease from other disorders.

"PET scanning is a way to look at the brain in people who are living and dealing with their disease," says Norman Foster, M.D., the U-M neurologist leading the research team. "The PET machine looks very much like an MRI or CT scanner, but it's different because it can show not just what the brain looks like inside the head, but how active different parts of the brain are and how they're reacting to the disease."

This brain activity -- or lack of it -- is what matters in Alzheimer's disease, adds Foster, who directs the Cognitive Disorders Clinic at the U-M Geriatrics Center and is a professor in the U-M Department of Neu
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Contact: Kara Gavin
kegavin@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
1-Nov-2002

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