Microglial activation and tau burden predict cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease
Publication: Brain
Maura Malpetti, Rogier A Kievit, Luca Passamonti, P Simon Jones, Kamen A Tsvetanov, Timothy Rittman, Elijah Mak, Nicolas Nicastro, W Richard Bevan-Jones, Li Su, Young T Hong, Tim D Fryer, Franklin I Aigbirhio, John T O’Brien, James B Rowe
07 May 2020
Summary:
Alzheimer’s disease is a condition associated with an ongoing decline of the brain functioning correctly. It can affect loss of memory, language and completing everyday tasks.
Researchers having been investigating the brains functionality, and whether they could help clinicians calculate how a patient will progress with their dementia.
Using an imaging machine called PET (positron emission tomography) they were able to take brain scans and detect the build-up of ‘junk proteins’ in the brain alongside brain inflammation and shrinkage. It could help predict how fast or slow and individual will progress with their dementia.
The PET scans could predict faster cognitive decline in patients and they were more accurate predictors than MRI measures of brain shrinkage.
