Brain Imaging (MRI/PET) and Measurements of Proteins in Spinal Fluid May Improve Alzheimer's Prediction and...(ting new therapies and eventual early in...),Health

"It is widely believed that Alzheimer's disease brain changes, including amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, begin many years before we see symptoms. It is critical to identify affected individuals while they are still relatively cognitively healthy so that future therapies can preserve healthy memory and thinking function. And, in order to develop those new therapies, we need to identify 'at risk' individuals now in order to steer them to clinical trials," Petersen added.

Petersen is Professor of Neurology; Cora Kanow Professor of Alzheimer's Disease Research; and Director, Mayo Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN. He is one of the Principal Investigators of ADNI.

Memory Tests and Hippocampal Volume May Accurately Diagnose Early Alzheimer's

Researchers led by Michael Ewers, PhD, senior research fellow at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Harald Hampel, MD, MSc, Chair of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, identified 345 ADNI participants (81 with Alzheimer's, 163 with amnestic MCI; 101 elderly healthy controls) on whom there was available data including (a) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration and ratios of Alzheimer's related proteins: total tau, phosphorylated tau (p-tau181), and beta-amyloid (AB1-42), (b) MRI volume measures of certain sections of the brain, including the left and right hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and medial temporal lobe, and (c) scores on certain standard memory, learning and brain function tests, including the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test (RAVL) and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS).

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