Alzheimer’s may leave a mark on the brain long before plaques appear
Researchers at the University of Oslo have identified structural brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease up to seven years before amyloid plaques become visible on standard PET scans. This discovery suggests that current diagnostic methods may miss early-stage disease processes.
Why it matters
Earlier detection of Alzheimer's could lead to more effective treatments and better patient outcomes before significant cognitive damage occurs.
A new study suggests that brain imaging could reveal changes linked to Alzheimer's disease more than seven years earlier than researchers previously believed. The work was led by scientists in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo and was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The study suggests that the current gold standard for Alzheimer's imaging (amyloid-PET) may not be sensitive enough to capture some of the earliest brain changes associated with the disease. These include processes related to the buildup of amyloid plaques. The researchers identified structural changes in the brain at least seven years before plaques became visible on scans.
"We found that structural changes in the brain occur many years before high levels of plaque are seen on PET scans, which is the brain scan currently used to identify the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease," says James Michael Roe.
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