LOS ANGELES: Researchers have developed a standard way of measuring certain parts of the brain that can help detect Alzheimer’s at a very early stage.
Cognitive testing is one way doctors chart how well a patient is doing, but it’s not definitive. Another way to diagnose is through MRI scans to see if a specific part of the brain – the hippocampus – is shrinking.
Now, after six years of painstaking study, scientists have developed the gold standard to measure the brain for that type of testing.
“Hippocampal atrophy is a really well-established marker of Alzheimer’s disease,” said the study, noting when the hippocampus shrinks, memory and cognitive abilities decline.
Normal aging results in about a two percent loss per year. Alzheimer’s patients lose about ten percent of tissue annually.
Before Apostolova and her colleagues developed a standard protocol for measuring the hippocampus, there was no uniform method, making it difficult to compare studies by researchers from around the world…