Amyloid imaging PET scan may help diagnose, prevent Alzheimer's

A new study tested an amyloid-imaging positron emission tomography (PET) with a new tracer. Amyloid is the protein that is deposited in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Though the study was small, the researchers found a "robust" difference in the amount of amyloid present in the brains of the Alzheimer's patients when compared to the healthy control patients. John Morris, the Friedman Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, said the scanning study has "enormous implications." The scans could be used to track the performance of drugs, vaccines and other therapies that break down amyloid or prevent it from forming, Morris said. The technology could also help diagnose Alzheimer's in living people and possibly predict who's likely to get the disease based on their brain chemistry. "Those are all big ifs, but now we have the tool with these imaging molecules," he said.

•	Amyloid imaging PET scan may help diagnose, prevent Alzheimer's The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004

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