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Alzheimer's Plaques Imaged in Living Brains
Yves writes "Japanese scientists have developed a technique to detect traces of Alzheimer's disease (amyloid plaques in the brain) on living mice... Until now, the standard way to confirm the presence of the plaques, and thus the disease, was by autopsy. The question remains: Do you really want to know early that you have Alzheimer disease, as there is no effective treatment yet?"
I've thought about this before, and I don't think I could ever live knowing that all of my memories are going to go down the drain and not even realize it. I would probably go crazy at the thought and kill myself before it happened.
Why not? I'll forget it pretty soon anyway!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Perhaps you meant to say no cure, but there are several effective treatments. My father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 5 years ago. The progress of the disease has been significantly curtailed by medication. It has also been shown that higher level thinking/learning has a significant protective effect from the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Yes, I would want to be tested specifically because there are currently effective medications and therapy which prolong quality of life.
Yes, I would like to know, if nothing more than being in control of things before it becomes a problem. I could update my living will, make my wishes known to my family and loved ones, and ... what was I saying?
An older couple began to notice that they were forgetting things, so they decided to take a memory course together. They took the course and were simply thrilled with the results. One day while shopping in a local store, they met a friend. "Bill, you just have to take this memory course. It's fantastic ! It's changed our lives," the husband said. "Wow, that's great ! What's the name of the course?" The husband turned to his wife and asked, "Honey, what's the name of that flower with the long stem and thorns?" "You mean a rose?" she replied. "Yes, that's right." (PAUSE) "Rose, what's the name of that memory course we took?"
is it that bad seein a hot chick again? if i see a hot chick walkin down the hall i dont say "repost"
"The only statistically significant result was in favour of placebo for adverse events, based on one trial, which appears likely to be a spurious result. "
However, other results were;
"Alzheimer's disease sufferers have been found to have a lack of the enzyme responsible for converting choline into acetylcholine within the brain. Lecithin is a major dietary source of choline, so extra consumption may reduce the progression of dementia."
"The Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group's Specialized Register was searched on 15 May 2002 using the terms lecithin and phosphaditylcholine."
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
a more disturbing aspect of this is the possibility of employers and insurers discriminating against people based on the test.
What a ridiculous question! If doctors simply never told anyone about a problem if it was currently "incurable," what kind of medical advancements could anyone ever make?
-- Being able to positively identify the plaques while a person is alive is instrumental to being able to determine the effectiveness of any proposed treatment in a timely manner. A patient could have symptoms of Alzheimers and participate in a treatment study -- if the symptoms miraculously dissapear, there would not be any way to positively determine if the treatment itself helped, or even if Alzheimers was the cause of the symptoms in the first place -- at least not until many years later when an autopsy might happen to confirm an earlier diagnosis.
The actual novelty of this story is that the plaques are being imaged with MRI using a probe rather than SPET or PET using a probe. Both SPET and PET imaging of amaloid plaques has been possible for several years...
Yawn.