Image: flickr / Ann Gordon
Alzheimer's: It's a disease that afflicts over five million Americans, and there is currently no treatment for it. But researchers are getting closer to a . Last week a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee recommended that the agency approve a brain scan that can detect the disease in a living patient.
The approval would be for a dye that homes in on plaque in the brain, making it visible on PET scans. Such scans would be especially valuable in a common and troubling situation — trying to make a diagnosis when it is not clear whether a patient’s memory problems are a result of Alzheimer’s disease or something else. If a scan shows no plaque, the problems are not caused by Alzheimer’s and could be from tiny strokes or other diseases. [New York Times]
Designed by Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, the radioactive marker florbetapir F-18 ...
