Scanner identifies types of dementia

Alzheimer's is among the brain diseases that most affect the population worldwide, only in Mexico there are 350 thousand people with this disease, a figure of Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. However, not only the disease is difficult, its detection is, in many cases, painful because it is done through a lumbar puncture.

This procedure is performed by means of a spinal needle that is introduced into the lumbar area. The test seeks to evaluate the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. Although anesthesia is used, it is still a painful intervention for patients; but all is not lost, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania They have just discovered an easier and more effective way to reveal this type of dementia.

Through a brain scan, specialists can detect Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia, the first of these affects the cerebral cortex while the second damages the frontal and temporal lobes.

The study, published in the magazine Neurology, It counted with the participation of 185 patients who underwent a scanner test. The method had an accuracy of 75% and consisted in finding patterns that can reveal the presence of the disease, as was the density of the gray matter.

Corey MacMillan , leader of the research, said that this is a breakthrough in terms of testing to detect diseases of the brain.

Science advances and it is possible that the ravages of these diseases, in the near future, have a cure.

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Video Medicine: Imaging Dementia-Mayo Clinic (March 2024).