Two new studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) used MR brain imaging techniques to predict a patient's progression to Alzheimer's disease by measuring subtle changes in brain structure that occur long before symptoms can be seen.
In both cases, researchers found signs of atrophy in the hippocampal region of the brain, which is critical for long-term memory.
In one study, which appears in the online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping, UCLA assistant clinical professor of neurology Dr. Liana Apostolova and colleagues used MRI to track 169 people over three years who had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.
They discovered that after three years, people who eventually developed Alzheimer's disease showed 10% to 30% greater atrophy in two specific locations of the hippocampus.
In the second study, which appears in the online edition of Neurobiology of Aging, researchers compared MRI brain scans of 10 cognitively normal elderly people with those of seven other elderly people who were later diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's.
Once again, the researchers found that the group diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease showed the same pattern of atrophy in the same regions of the hippocampus.
The MRI results show excess atrophy is present in cognitively normal individuals who are predestined to develop mild cognitive impairment, Apostolova said, and atrophy ultimately spreads across the entire hippocampus of the brain, leading to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
By Wayne Forrest
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
February 2, 2010
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