Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Alzheimer's Association news

The Alzheimer's Association has been meeting in Vienna. They have been looking into new ways of diagnosing the disease in its early stages and into the genetics of the condition. Researchers from Trinity College, Dublin studied 345 people with mild cognitive impairment which is often - but not always - a precursor to Alzheimer's. By combining three memory tests with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanning they were able to achieve a 95% level of accuracy. In another study Susan Landau from the University of California studied 85 people and found that poor memory recall and a PET (positron emission tomography) scan measuring low levels of glucose in the brain were linked to a fifteenfold increase in the risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers from Duke University in North Carolina also found that a gene called TOMM40 raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE56D11L20090714?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

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