Alzheimer, Headache & Co.: Detecting Neurological Illnesses Better And Earlier

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 23 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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The rapid development of modern neuroimaging has made a decisive improvement in the diagnosis of neurological illnesses. As Professor Filippi notes: "Neuroimaging makes new diagnostic tools available with the potential to quantify the extent of CNS injury, to define the nature of the different pathological substrates of the various CNS affections and to assess the functional changes following tissue damage with the ability to limit the clinical consequences of injury."

The research team of Professor Filippi is presenting a study at the ENS Congress that could contribute to better distinguishing between Alzheimer's disease and the normal aging processes of the brain. With the help of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI), researchers examined the white matter changes in healthy persons, in those with Alzheimer's and in patients with cognitive impairment. Sure enough, differences appear, as the study shows: The major brain fibre bundles show diffusivity alterations which followed the trajectory normal ageing - mild cognitive impairment - Alzheimer's disease.

In another very frequently occurring disease, modern neuroimaging is also delivering important new findings: a separate study being presented at the Milan Congress compared - using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) - specific neuronal networks between healthy people and those with cluster headache. "The analysis of resting states networks reveals abnormalities of the visual and motor networks in cluster headache patients outside the acute attack," the Milan researches noted in summarizing their results. "These findings suggest a diffuse dysfunction of functional connectivity which extends beyond the antinoceptive system."

Another current work of the research team shows the usefulness of modern neuroimaging for the early detection of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is the most common adult-onset motor neuron disease with a dramatic course. The diagnosis of ALS is based on clinical criteria and no diagnostic biomarkers objectively assessing damage to the corticospinal tracts are available, making the early diagnosis especially difficult. That might change. Professor Filippi: "We were able to show with diffusion tensor MRI tractography that - compared with controls - ALS patients with mild disability have a clear damage to the corticospinal tracts."

Source
European Neurological Society