DEVELOPMENT OF DIAGNOSTIC TESTS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: PET SCANNING

Apr
02
2009

Posted by: admin in Categories: General health.
Using Tags: General health

As well as scanning techniques that examine the structure of the brain and the changes within it, there are also those that measure functional changes, such as the way in which the blood passes through the brain or the manner in which the brain cells use up some of the brain chemicals. One such approach is called PET scanning (positron emission tomography). This has revealed particular patterns of abnormality in the way in which the Alzheimer brain uses glucose for example, but this has been found to be the case only in younger people with the disease, not the older sufferers who make up the majority of people affected. One interesting finding, however, is the fact that the impairment of glucose metabolism in the cerebral cortex varies between individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, and that this difference appears to reflect the way in which the disease affects the sufferer — that is, which symptoms and signs he or she has developed.

PET scanning is extremely complicated and requires access to radioactive materials, albeit in minute quantities, that are difficult to make and use. It is therefore only available in a few centres.

These new scanning techniques, and also CT scans which have been available for quite a while now, have increased our understanding of the changes in the brain a little, but perhaps not as much as we had hoped. We are hoping that there may in a few years be some less expensive and more easily available scanning techniques that will prove useful in helping us to understand what is happening in the brain and improve our diagnostic accuracy.