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January 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, Jan. 2 (HealthDay News) — Searching for a better screen
for early Alzheimer’s disease, researchers think they have found a marker
of change in the brain that precedes the onset of the disease by five to
10 years.
The indicator of trouble to come, they say, is a shift in the levels of
specific components of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain and
spinal cord. Among patients already diagnosed with mild cognitive
impairment, a drop in such levels appears to be a sign of Alzheimer’s
years before symptoms develop.
The discovery, published in the January issue of Archives of
General Psychiatry, could potentially aid in the use of
disease-modifying therapies, which are designed to work best if applied
when a patient is still in the early stages of disease.
“These markers can identify individuals at high risk for future
[Alzheimer’s disease] at least five to 10 years before conversion to
dementia,” study author Dr. Peder Buchhave, of Lund University and Skane
University in Sweden, noted in a journal news release. “Hopefully, new
therapies that can retard or even halt progression of the disease will
soon be available. Together with an early and accurate diagnosis, such
therapies could be initiated before neuronal degeneration is too
widespread and patients are already demented.”
The study results stem from more than nine years of follow-up to prior
research that had involved 137 patients diagnosed with mild cognitive
impairment, a mental state that often precedes dementia.
Over the course of the study, nearly 54 percent of the patients went on
to develop Alzheimer‘s, while another 16 percent were ultimately diagnosed
with different forms of dementia.
Specifically, among those who developed Alzheimer’s, the researchers
found that key aspects of their cerebrospinal fluid dropped off in the
years before. In addition, other fluid properties actually went up.
The study team said that they believe that about nine out of every 10
patients with mild cognitive impairment who experience such fluid shifts
will eventually go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Commenting on the study, one expert in the United States said that the
new research “provides confirmation of the general concept that CSF can
predict the progression of mild memory loss to mild dementia.”
Dr. Sam Gandy, associate director of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s
Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York
City, added that the results of the European study largely echo those of a
trial reported by researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in
2010.
He noted that methods of early detection might prove valuable for
research into the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Most new Alzheimer’s drugs are aimed at reducing amyloid [protein
plaque] accumulation, and the general consensus is that these drugs will
only work at early or presymptomatic stages of disease,” said Gandy, who
is also Mount Sinai Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research. “The new paper
strengthens the likelihood that CSF biomarkers can be useful for
identifying that population of subjects with early or presymptomatic
disease in order to recruit them into trials.”
More information
For more on early signs of Alzheimer’s, visit the Alzheimer’s Association.
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