MRI Imaging Identifies Diagnostic Marking That Indicates Early Alzheimer's Disease Symptoms

One of the saddest proclamations coming from medical researchers is that Alzheimer's disease is a killer disease and that it rates very high on a non-survival scale of from one to ten. There is no cure for this disease, and there is no treatment in the past or present time that can stop progression of this condition. Nor is there any specific medicine that will slow the pace of this devastating Alzheimer's disease. However, MRI imaging can identify diagnostic marking that indicates early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Who Is At Risk?

Elderly citizens are more at risk for the disease, which is a brain-oriented and aging type of medical illness. It is a form of dementia. There is a ray of hope though that when discovered early, treatments may slow down the symptoms and give the elderly a lease on life. Hopefully, MRI testing will ultimately play a vital role in helping to early diagnose and possibly treat the disease without limitations in the future.

Damaged Brain

Your brain has a variety of distinct regions that carry out important functions. Those regions include memory, movement and judgment. Brain cells from different regions sustain damage, and it becomes difficult for the injured region to continue functioning normally. Considering that Alzheimer's disease is a memory-related illness, the task for researchers will be to identify the damage and treat the symptoms early.

Patient Differing Symptoms

The ongoing problem with dementia and its association with Alzheimer's is that individual patients have different symptoms. So the task becomes more difficult to treat the disease with a group of differing patients. Patient testing will have to be conducted in groups of people who have the same disease symptoms and have similar brain damage. Progression of the disease also varies in different people. So in what way will MRI technology help the process of treatment?

Best Imaging With Use Of 3-D MRI

Scientists believe that MRI is the best imaging examination for Alzheimer's disease. They surmise that 3-D MRI testing offers an accurate measurement method of brain volume and structures that are associated with the disease in identifiable areas. Those areas include the hippocampus area of your brain. Scientists and surgeons studying this troubling disease use neuroimaging with 3-D MRI to exclude other forms of dementia that are brought about by brain tumors and cerebrovascular disease.

Diagnostic Marker

Now that 3-D MRI is helping to provide more details than a traditional MRI is capable of doing, this imaging serves to identify areas of the medial temporal brain where atrophy may already be in progress. If atrophy is discovered in the medial temporal brain area, then that is a definite diagnostic marker indicating the development of early stage Alzheimer's disease. This finding allows professionals to develop strategies to treat early symptoms of the disease.