The current approach to diagnosis involves multiple costly assessments. Very often, the clinician won't be sure of the diagnosis. PET allows early positive differential diagnoses for Alzheimer's and other diseases-years before the disease appears clinically. That makes it the third most costly illness. Most mild cases go unrecognized.
Researchers say they are isolating tools for early diagnosis and treatment.
These findings provide preclinical evidence that the presence of the APO E4 allele is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. PET may offer a relatively rapid way of testing future treatments to prevent Alzheimer's disease. The impact of early diagnosis could be an increase in the use of cholinesterase inhibitors and other agents that delay the onset of the disease. By stabilizing and delaying the functional decline, he added, patients can maintain autonomy longer and nursing home admissions can be delayed, resulting in both cost savings and less of a burden on caregivers. In addition to AD and other forms of dementia, researchers are now using PET scans to determine whether or not a patient has a deficiency in dopamine synthesis in the brain, indicating the presence of Parkinson's disease.