New Test Allows for Better Tracking of Alzheimer’s

A group of researchers in Philadelphia have developed a brain scan relying on a different kind of dye that will allow doctors to see the early stages of developing Alzheimer’s disease and to track the progress of the disease in the brain.

In the past, doctors treating patients with memory loss have not had reliable means of diagnosing Alzheimer’s. The new test will also be very important to researchers working on treatments for the condition, who will be able to gauge the effectiveness of their treatments much more precisely than ever before.

Although several conditions can cause memory problems in older people, Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a very specific development of black flecks called plaque that accumulate in the brain. In the past, the only really reliable way to know whether someone had Alzheimer’s or not was to wait until after their death and perform an autopsy.

A Philadelphia company called Avid Radiopharmaceuticals has developed a new tracer dye, fluorine 18, which will make it practical for doctors to use PET scans to observe plaque in the brains of living patients. The company is led by Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, who left a post at the University of Pennsylvania to form his company and focus full-time on researching the problem of observing plaque in living patients to allow for early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

Avid has spent several years developing and validating the new test. Although final FDA approval is still pending, Skovronsky is scheduled to present the findings and the new test at the international meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association in Honolulu in July.

Several other companies are working on competing tests, including major multinational corporations like Bayer AG and General Electric. With Avid’s breakthrough, it seems likely that major changes in the way doctors treat and research Alzheimer’s can not be far away.

The projected growth in Alzheimer’s patients over the next few decades is expected to be enormous as life expectancies continue to climb and the Baby Boomers age, so this is welcome news for all of us.