A type of positron emission tomography (Pet) scan may aid physicians in assessing the formation of plaques in the brain thought to be related to Alzheimer’s disease, it has been claimed.
The non-invasive technique scans the plaques which are formed from beta-amyloid and other compounds and could be used in place of the traditional methods that involve analyzing brain tissue samples, Eurekalert notes.
Ville Leinonen and colleagues from the University of Kuopio in Finland studied ten patients who did not have severe dementia but had undergone a biopsy of their frontal cortex due to a suspected abnormal increase of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.
While four displayed none of the changes associated with Alzheimer’s, six had beta-amyloid plaques in their tissue samples.
Following an injection of carbon 11–labeled Pittsburgh Compound B ([11C]PiB) and a 90-minute Pet scan it was revealed that the patients displayed a higher uptake of [11C]PiB in certain brain areas compared to those who did not have such plaques.
The study is set to be published in the October 2008 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
In related news, it has been claimed by a researcher from the university that a seafood diet may prevent to onset of memory loss.
