Alzheimer's Plaques Imaged in Living Brains 61
Yves writes "Japanese scientists have developed a technique to detect traces of Alzheimer's disease (amyloid plaques in the brain) on living mice... Until now, the standard way to confirm the presence of the plaques, and thus the disease, was by autopsy. The question remains: Do you really want to know early that you have Alzheimer disease, as there is no effective treatment yet?"
Personally (Score:3, Insightful)
Want to know? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:5, Insightful)
that's not the only issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a case of "want to know or not" (Score:4, Insightful)
-- Being able to positively identify the plaques while a person is alive is instrumental to being able to determine the effectiveness of any proposed treatment in a timely manner. A patient could have symptoms of Alzheimers and participate in a treatment study -- if the symptoms miraculously dissapear, there would not be any way to positively determine if the treatment itself helped, or even if Alzheimers was the cause of the symptoms in the first place -- at least not until many years later when an autopsy might happen to confirm an earlier diagnosis.
Re:Want to know? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't it great when you have to sneak around the healthcare system to feel safe.
Re:Want to know? (Score:2, Insightful)