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YET another method that lets doctors diagnose Alzheimer鈥檚 disease from brain scans has been developed in the US. At present, the only surefire way to find Alzheimer鈥檚 is to check a patient鈥檚 brain after death. But if doctors can pick up early signs of the disease in the living, they could offer them new treatments.

Last June, a team led by Jorge Barrio of the University of California at Los Angeles showed PET scans of an Alzheimer鈥檚 patient who had been injected with a radioactive fluorine-rich tracer. This highlighted plaques 鈥� localised areas of damaged brain tissue that don鈥檛 show up on routine scans. And following recent autopsies on Alzheimer鈥檚 patients, they have confirmed the accuracy of their technique.

Now another team, led by Hank Kung at the University of Pennsylvania, has a new technique. Kung modified synthetic hydrocarbons called stilbenes that bind to Alzheimer鈥檚 plaques. Attaching mildly radioactive isotopes to the stilbenes made them visible on the scans. In tests on mice, Kung proved that the stilbenes can infiltrate the brain. Only tiny quantities were involved, minimising the radiation dose. 鈥淚鈥檓 certain that in five years, there鈥檒l be drugs which delay or prevent excess development of plaques, which could save your brain,鈥� he says.