The brains of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease start shrinking up to a decade before symptoms show, a new study finds. Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Massachusetts common Hospital in Boston did brain imaging tests on older adults with no signs of memory loss. Of the 33 people in the Mass common group, eight developed Alzheimer's over the course of 11 years. In the Rush group, 7 of 32 people followed for a normal of seven years developed the disease. About 55 percent of those whose brains were in the higher tertile (third) of atrophy developed Alzheimer's, while nothing of those whose brains in the bottom tertile developed Alzheimer's.
Among those with sensible amounts of atrophy, about 20 percent developed the disease. "We could differentiate those who would decline from those who would stay healthy," said senior study author Leyla deToledo-Morrell, director of the graduate program in neuroscience at Rush University Medical Center. Based on the atrophy capacity, "we could even determine how quickly they were going to develop Alzheimer's disease," she added. The study is available in the April 13 issue of Neurology. Doctors have long known that Alzheimer's is an sinister disease, and that changes in the brain begin long before the first symptoms become evident, said Dr. Jeffrey Burns, director of the Alzheimer and Memory plan at University of Kansas Medical Center.
"This suggests, along with other studies, that Alzheimer's pathology is likely present years, if not decades, before the emergence of symptoms," Burns said. What's probably occurrence is that biochemical change in the brain that are only partly understood cause deterioration of brain cells, said Dr. Steven DeKosky, vice president and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Over time, the cells begin to die off, important to structural changes in the brain tissue, or atrophy. Specifically, people in the study who would later be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were more likely to show cortical thinning, or shrinkage, in some brain regions, including the medial temporal lobe, temporal pole and the superior frontal gyrus, which prior research has concerned in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Among those with sensible amounts of atrophy, about 20 percent developed the disease. "We could differentiate those who would decline from those who would stay healthy," said senior study author Leyla deToledo-Morrell, director of the graduate program in neuroscience at Rush University Medical Center. Based on the atrophy capacity, "we could even determine how quickly they were going to develop Alzheimer's disease," she added. The study is available in the April 13 issue of Neurology. Doctors have long known that Alzheimer's is an sinister disease, and that changes in the brain begin long before the first symptoms become evident, said Dr. Jeffrey Burns, director of the Alzheimer and Memory plan at University of Kansas Medical Center.
"This suggests, along with other studies, that Alzheimer's pathology is likely present years, if not decades, before the emergence of symptoms," Burns said. What's probably occurrence is that biochemical change in the brain that are only partly understood cause deterioration of brain cells, said Dr. Steven DeKosky, vice president and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Over time, the cells begin to die off, important to structural changes in the brain tissue, or atrophy. Specifically, people in the study who would later be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were more likely to show cortical thinning, or shrinkage, in some brain regions, including the medial temporal lobe, temporal pole and the superior frontal gyrus, which prior research has concerned in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
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